The Second Floor Librarians

Click on the picture at left to get to Booklist’s Top 10 Crafts & Gardening books of the year.  Want other hand picked titles and well-written book reviews?

I asked some of the Adult Services Librarians to share their favorite books from 2011.  The list that follows is an interesting and eclectic mix of fiction and non-fiction and includes some titles that are new to me and maybe to you as well.  Happy reading!

Just recently I watched my dad coach his high school soccer team to their second state championship.  After giving their all through 110 minutes of regulation and overtime, the team persevered and narrowly won the gold in penalty kicks. It capped off an amazing season, filled with highs and lows, excitement and sports drama. And [...]

I recently heard an NPR story about the new book, The unconquered, which tells of a tribe of several thousand people in the Amazonian rainforest that has never had contact with modern civilization.  My curiosity aroused about the Amazon region, I browsed the catalog and found  these three additional books that are similar in scope [...]

I like this time of year for curling up with a book.  It’s partly the rain and short days that make this appealing, and partly the need to take a little break from the frenzied holiday season.  Why not escape into the past with a good historical novel?

 There are holiday books for everyone this season, crafters, cooks, parents, decorators, pet owners, and those who hope for less consumerism.  And for those of us who don’t mind a little sarcasm with our holidays, there is holiday humor.

Are you curious about meditation?  One of my co-workers is taking a meditation class, and since it is something I’ve always wanted to try,  I decided to take a look at what the library has on the subject.

This week I read critic Michael Dirda’s column Dirda’s Reading Room : Come talk about books  in The Washington Post.  His topic, “My most challenging book,” got my gray cells going about the work we undertake when we read books that are over our heads.

The Library of Congress’ 2011 National Book Festival is September 24th and 25th in Washington, DC.  There is lots of fun information about authors and books on the  Festival’s website including some great interviews with three of the authors featured at this year’s festival.

The Help, which opens today at the Carmike Cinema in Corvallis,  is based on the bestselling book The Help by Kathryn Stockett.   Keep reading to find out what books are being made into movies.