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Darien Library Catalog
This has to be the world’s worst title.Friday, October 10, 2008 - 2:34pm — jenniferd
And I feel that her editors were on break when this one slipped by. But Bon Appetit, Y’All by Virginia Willis has to be one of my favorite cookbooks so far this fall. Virginia Willis is Southern by birth and trained with Anne Willan at La Varenne and her food reflects this. You hop from Cheese Straws to Gougeres, Country Captain Chicken to Coq Au Vin, Chess Pie to Crème Brulee au Vanille. The pictures are glorious and her personality shines through with hilarious anecdotes and touching personal stories (you must check out the story accompanying the recipe for Fingerling Potato Salad. We were laughing so hard we started to cry). It is an awful lot like spending time on a friend’s front porch. Provided that friend can make a mean Corn Spoon Bread. I was a lucky girl growing up. I had a French Grandmother and a Southern Grandmother. This book reminds me of lovely by-gone dinners at two very different tables. But they both had wonderful food lovingly prepared in common. Cook something good this weekend!
Chants EncountersFriday, October 10, 2008 - 1:02pm — JanetD
A new addition is Chant: Music for the Soul, performed by monks at the Cistercian Abbey in Austria. This CD has the ability to calm and transport...and perhaps bring us back from the journey feeling refreshed and renewed. Spacious, deep, sacred yet not daunting, this is a welcoming, warming choice for those looking to unplug and unwind, especially as the days get shorter and temperatures begin to drop. Try this new release, or any of our older titles, and give peace a chant. Eyes on the PrizeWednesday, October 8, 2008 - 4:02pm — Sally
It’s that time of year again—Nobel Prize season. This week, the Nobel Foundation announced the winners for medicine, chemistry, and physics with more to follow. Congratulations to the lucky (not to mention brilliant) recipients! The committee will announce the winners for literature on Thursday, peace on Friday, and economics on Monday. If you want to be the first to know, check out the live webcast from the Swedish Academy in Stockholm on Thursday, October 9. Make sure to set your alarm clock—the broadcast is scheduled for 1 p.m. sharp in Stockholm, which translates to 7 a.m. in Darien. Following the announcement, an interview will be held with Horace Engdahl, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, about the 2008 Nobel Laureate in Literature. Do you remember who won the award in 2007? Just in case it doesn’t come to mind immediately, here’s a hint: upon hearing the news that she had won, she commented “I've won all the prizes in Europe, every bloody one, so I'm delighted to win them all, the whole lot, OK? It's a royal flush." For the answer, click here!
Parent Favorite: Classic and Modern FAMILY STORIESWednesday, October 8, 2008 - 1:34pm — AnnaDid you grow up enjoying Little Women, Sarah, Plain and Tall, and Cheaper by the Dozen? These classics are still popular family stories for kids! Check out these modern read-alikes:
The Elevator Family by Douglas Evans
Judy Blume family series such as... ---Pain and the Great One series
Saffy's Angel series by Hilary McKay
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| Kiki Strike by Kirsten Miller |
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| Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce | The Enola Homes Mysteries by Nancy Springer | Gilda Joyce, Psychic Investigator by Jennifer Allison |
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| Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett | Lulu Dark by Bennett Madison |
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| The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd | The 39 Clues by Rick Riordan |
What are your favorite MYSTERY books for kids? Tag them with "parent favorite" in the catalog!
Is History Repeating Itself?
Tuesday, October 7, 2008 - 8:40pm — kateFor the past few weeks every newspaper, magazine, and scrolling ticker has been plastered with photos of anguished traders, scary graphs and complex analysis of financial instruments that seem more like magic than math. The current financial crisis seems unprecedented and unpredictable. Yesterday’s New York Times offered some perspective by examining the roles of two famous businessmen during hard times: Warren Buffett and J.P. Morgan.
The Times notes that “Comparing the two men and their moves in periods of market turmoil, just more than a century apart, reveals how much some things have changed over the years and how other things have not, according to business historians and finance experts.”
This got a few of us thinking about the history of the markets and the comforts of knowing that we’ve been in dire straits before and it doesn’t always end with apple carts and a generation growing up sharing a pair of shoes with their siblings. Several of you are ahead of us on this curve- when we started looking for books on the history of Wall Street, we found a number of them were already checked out. We’ve put what’s here on the front table for you to peruse.
For the historically-minded, there’s
Manias, Panics, And Crashes : A History Of Financial Crises
Bull! : A History Of The Boom, 1982-1999 : What Drove The Breakneck Market--and What Every Investor Needs To Know About Financial Cycles
What Goes Up : The Uncensored History Of Modern Wall Street As Told By The Bankers, Brokers, CEOs, And Scoundrels Who Made It Happen
House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty And The Rise Of Modern Finance
If you're looking for a modern take (and maybe a little schadenfreude) we have
America's Bubble Economy : Profit When It Pops
The World Is Curved : Hidden Dangers To The Global Economy
Chain Of Blame : How Wall Street Caused The Mortgage And Credit Crisis
The New Paradigm For Financial Markets : The Credit Crisis Of 2008 And What It Means
Crash Proof : How To Profit From The Coming Economic Collapse
Undue Influence : How The Wall Street Elite Put The Financial System At Risk
If you want a more explanatory approach, try:
Money, Greed, And Risk : Why Financial Crises And Crashes Happen
How the Stock Market Works
Or for biography fans, in addition to the new Warren Buffett bio, there’s:
The White Sharks Of Wall Street : Thomas Mellon Evans And The Original Corporate Raiders
Titan : The Life Of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
The Dark Genius Of Wall Street : The Misunderstood Life Of Jay Gould, King Of The Robber Barons
Henry Clay Frick : An Intimate Portrait
On a World War II Streak
Friday, October 3, 2008 - 3:02pm — kim
By coincidence much of the fiction I’ve read recently has been about the World War II era: Mudbound by Hillary Jordan, The Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, The Magic of Ordinary Days by Ann Howard Creel, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer. These books have touched me with their insight into ordinary people who have lived through an extraordinary time, and they have given me a more global perspective on the events of the late 1930s and ‘40s.
Collectively, these books explore the struggles of Japanese-Americans in western U.S., the racism of Jim Crow laws in the South, the plight of Europe as the Third Reich spread and the horrors of the Holocaust. Their stories have painted a rich and haunting picture of the world at war.
My WWII streak may be coming to a close, but the library is tempting me to keep it going with other fiction by and about WWII veterans, most notably Joseph Heller, William F. Buckley and Scott Turow.
For our non-fiction readers, authors like Joseph E. Persico, Hampton Sides, James Bradley, and Stephen Ambrose bring the War into sharp focus, while Doris Kearns Goodwin, Alistair Cooke and Tom Brokaw help us understand life in the United States during that time.
World War II buffs, we know you’re out there! Tell us about your favorite WWII novels, histories and authors either in the comments or by tagging your favorites “best wwii”.
Wild about Harry? Titles to Try After Harry Potter
Friday, October 3, 2008 - 2:16pm — VeronicaPonceRead and Reread all the Harry Potter books? Have no fear... Your Library is here...to recommend...
Sunday with Jordon
Thursday, October 2, 2008 - 10:28pm — darienlibrary
Our Fall Book Discussion Series continues this Sunday, the 5th, at 2:30 p.m. The discussion book is America America by Ethan Canin. Come by and join a lively and relevant discussion led by Professor Jordon Pecile.
Saturday ON the Mall
Tuesday, September 30, 2008 - 4:17pm — Barbara T.Janet, Erica, and I had the happiest of experiences attending the National Book Festival in Washington D.C. on Saturday. The annual festival, now in its eighth year, is a day-long event and is a friendly and fun attraction for individuals and families. Despite the oppressive and threatening weather, thousands showed up on the Mall. We had a chance to talk with publishers, publicists, and authors. We chatted with Brad Meltzer (who'd been here to speak at the Library just a few days before), Pauline Frommer, and Philippa Gregory. We were also, as you can see, thisclose to Tiki Barber and Janet asked him a question during the press event.
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It was a terrific event...unmarred...though may I say one more thing about the weather? See the photos below? I want to know how Philippa, Erica, and Brad appear untouched by the ravages of the awful, sticky day!
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