amish romances and NPR's top 100 thrillers

Yes - the world is catching on to what Chinook patrons have been reading for years - inspirational fiction.  This USA Today article talks about the growing interest and lists a few upcoming titles...

And, if your readers prefer perspirational literature to inspirational, there's NPR's list of the top 100 thrillers. Jaws is number 25 - can you guess which book ranked at number 1? Check out the article to find out...

ebooks and audiobooks - sneak preview starts on August 2

 For early adopters - those tech savvy patrons and staff who can cope with being the first to try a new service and help us work out the kinks, a sneak preview of our new downloading service will begin on August 2. This sneak preview is part of an array of new products and services we'll be launching as part of our regional revitalization over the next few months.

A province-wide collection of electronic books can be accessed at:
http://www.library2go.sk.ca - remember though, your Chinook card won't be working until the 2nd of August.  Anyone who has technical questions can contact our support staff at chinook.overdrive [at] gmail.com

I had a great time selecting some items to supplement the existing provincial collection, and imagine my delight when I discovered that fourteen of the titles I chose were borrowed in less than 24 hours!  Here's what was snapped up within hours:

1.	The Help		Kathryn Stockett
2.	A Kiss at Midnight		Eloisa James
3.	The Lion, the Witch and the...		C. S. Lewis
4.	Devil in Winter		Lisa Kleypas
5.	The Girl with the Dragon Ta...		Stieg Larsson
6.	A Dangerous Love		Sabrina Jeffries
7.	About That Man		Sherryl Woods
8.	Bad Luck and Trouble		Lee Child
9.	Blood Hunt		Ian Rankin
10.	Again the Magic		Lisa Kleypas
11.	The Girl Who Played with Fi...		Stieg Larsson
12.	The Hunger Games (unabridge...		Suzanne Collins
13.	One False Note (unabridged)		Gordon Korman
14.	Infamous		Suzanne Brockmann

I hope some of your patrons will get excited about this 'sneak preview' of a fantastic new service.  A full launch with publicity will occur in conjunction with our migration to SILS.

Are comics the gateway to novels?

The Chinook Regional Library has comics. The secret is out. Why? We want to serve all types of readers and that includes those patrons who enjoy comic books and graphic novels.

If parents are struggling to find something for their hard to reach teen readers suggest a comic book or graphic novel. Research shows reading leads to...more reading! There are a lot of words in comic books and every one of them counts as reading.

If you haven't ever read a comic book or graphic novel give it a try! Even Jodi Picoult has written for this format, check-out "Love and Murder".

Crime and cookery - award-winning books available @ your library

You may remember that it was only a week ago that we highlighted Canadian crime / mystery writers Louise Penny and Alan Bradley (see blog post here). Well, they've done it again, each winning one of this year's Agatha Awards (awards for mystery / crime novels that contain no graphic sex or violence). Congratulations to our Canadian authors!

The Edgar awards were also announced recently announced, and some of the winners are avaiable for you to borrow right away:

John Hart - The Lost Child
“Hart once again produces a novel that is elegant, haunting, and memorable. His characters are given an emotional depth that genre characters seldom have, and the graceful, evocative prose lifts his stories right out of their genre and into the realm of capital-L literature. A must-read for every variety of fiction reader.” –Booklist (starred review)

Otto Penzler (ed.) - The Lineup
"A great recurring character in a series you love becomes an old friend. You learn about their strange quirks and their haunted pasts and root for them every time they face danger. But where do some of the most fascinating sleuths in the mystery and thriller world really come from?
What was the real-life location that inspired Michael Connelly to make Harry Bosch a Vietnam vet tunnel rat? Why is Jack Reacher a drifter?... In THE LINEUP, some of the top mystery writers in the world tell about the genesis of their most beloved characters--or, in some cases, let their creations do the talking. " (publisher description)

...and for true crime fans
Dave Cullen - Columbine
"A remarkable book. It is painstakingly reported, well-organized and compellingly written . . . For any reader who wants to understand the complicated nature of evil, this book is a masterpiece." (The Seattle Times )



Also honoured as a grand master is Dorothy Gilman, a wonderful writer who deserves a wider audience. Gilman is most famous for her novels about Mrs. Pollifax, a grandmother who becomes a CIA agent.

Lastly, two sets of awards were announced for cookbooks, The International Association of Culinary Professionals Cookbook Awards, and the James Barber Foundation Awards.  One book named in both sets of awards is Ad Hoc at Home, by Thomas Keller.

"Thomas Keller shares family-style recipes that you can make any or every day. In the book every home cook has been waiting for, the revered Thomas Keller turns his imagination to the American comfort foods closest to his heart flaky biscuits, chicken pot pies, New England clam bakes, and cherry pies so delicious and redolent of childhood that they give Proust's madeleines a run for their money. Keller, whose restaurants The French Laundry in Yountville, California, and Per Se in New York have revolutionized American haute cuisine, is equally adept at turning out simpler fare." (from publisher)

Book your beach reads now!

Book your beach reads now!

July is just around the corner, Chinook readers, so why not book some prime beach reading now?

... Click here for a list of hot titles coming in July
 

Prizes, prizes - Crozier wins for Swift Current Memoir, Eggers wins LA Times Book Prize

Former Swift Current resident, Lorna Crozier has won the BC Book Prize for non-fiction for her account of growing up in Swift Current. Fans and friends of Crozier were enchanted as she read from the memoir, Small Beneath the Sky, this winter at the Lyric Theatre.  If she comes by again, get your tickets early!

Sticking with our theme of West Coast literary prizes, we have this year's big winner at the LA Times Book Prizes, Dave Eggers.  Eggers' new non-fiction title Zeitoun captured the prizes for both innovation and current interest.  “Zeitoun is a riveting, intimate, wide-scanning, disturbing, inspiring nonfiction account of a New Orleans married couple named Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun who were dragged through their own special branch of Kafkaesque (for once the adjective is unavoidable) hell after Hurricane Katrina. . ..” —James Wolcott, Vanity Fair

 A new category added this year was for graphic novel, and the winner, David Mazzucchelli has been receiving accolades across North America for his all grown up graphic novel Asterios Polyp.  “Mazzucchelli's funny, harrowing and thought-provoking graphic novel is a remarkable portrait of an architect who is forced to build a new life for himself.” – San Francisco Chronicle Best Books of the Year

Canadian Louise Penny tops list of best crime novels of the year

Louise Penny does it again, as Booklist names ner novel The Brutal Telling one of the top crime novels of the year.  Reviewer Bill Ott describes Penny's novels as "village cozy mixed with procedural". Place your holds, mystery lovers.

The complete list of the Year's Best Crime Novels also includes some debut authors, notably another Canadian, Alan Bradley.  Bradley's 11 year old detective Flavia has captured hearts around the world in his debut novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and its sequel, The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag.  

Two great Canadian mystery writers to watch out for!