Because some seriously good reads are coming your way this September!

So put away the sun block and the beach bag!  Here are our picks for making Fall fun!

Those who know us know we are fascinated by all things Chanel.  Coco Chanel:  The Legend and Her Life by Justine Picardie is something we can’t wait to get our hands on.  Picardie had unprecedented access to the Chanel archive and this book promises to bring to solve many of the mysteries surrounding this creative genius. 

Also, those who know us know that we are NPR junkies.  We are really looking forward to hearing the story behind the voice that has brought us so many wonderful stories.  Michele Norris using her own family’s stories examines the history and current state of race relations in America.  From the story of her grandmother employed as a traveling Aunt Jemima to her father’s shooting by a white police man The Grace of Silence promises to be a book that will elicit many a discussion.

Nobody is better than Ken Follett at bringing us big, fat wonderful epics.  And this September he begins a new trilogy centering around five interconnected families.  They will begin their stories at the beginning of the last century and through the subsequent books carry us through to the end.  Fall of Giants is just the thing for those increasingly long nights ahead. 

Room by Emma Donoghue is a book we are wild for and have included in our Fall 2010 Book Discussion Series.  Jack is a very typical 5 year old boy.  Energetic and curious about the world he keeps his Ma on her toes!  But very quickly we realize that Jack and Ma’s world is not like ours. It is confined to an 11 x 11 space.  And they never leave it.  Every one we have given this book to has become a huge fan.  We can’t wait to hear what the rest of you have to say about it.

Ok, it can’t all be serious all the time.  So David Sedaris is back with Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk:  A Modest Bestiary.  We love anyone who can make us laugh out loud with such force that anyone near you at the time will assume there is something seriously wrong with you and move slowly away avoiding eye contact.  Such is the power of anything written by Sedaris.  These are short stories all featuring animals that have some very human characteristics. 

So, yes it is most sad that we have to pack away the detritus of summer.  But look at the wonderful Book Goodness that is coming our way!  Almost makes the transition seem worth it!
 

It's considered one of the modern-day wonders of the world, hosts almost 800,000 cars a week, but was called "a thirty five million dollar steel harp" by the San Francisco Chronicle when it opened in 1937. Today, we know the Golden Gate Bridge as an enduring symbol of the west and it's hard to imagine that beautiful city's waterfront without the bridge's familiar silhouette.

A new book, The Golden Gate: The Life and Times of America's Greatest Bridge by Kevin Starr, tells the story behind the bridge, starting with a history of the Bay Area, the political wranglings behind the bridge's inception, and the arduous process of conceptualizing and creating a man-made structure to span the dangerous waters between San Francisco and Marin County. We read about the tragedies that killed 11 workers and led to installation of a safety net during the building, how the distinctive International Orange color was chosen (over the objections of the US Navy, which preferred yellow and black stripes!), and why the guard rails on the pedestrian walk are so alarmingly low. We cheer with almost a quarter million pedestrians who joyously celebrated their city's newest landmark when it finally opened in 1937!

For more detail, The Gate by John Van der Zee (1986) offers an exhaustive history. The Golden Gate, though, brings the story up to date and covers many more aspects of the bridge's utilitarian and iconic qualities. If you've never seen -- or driven or walked across -- this glorious span, this new book will inspire you to head west and experience the Golden Gate Bridge for yourself.

The Butterfly Effect

Small Decisions, Epic Impacts

Every day we make decisions. Sometimes, we know these decisions will be life-altering, which helps us to anticipate the consequences. At other times, the decisions seem so small in relation to the big picture that we don't think twice and often forget about them immediately after they are made. It's these seemingly irrelevant moments, however that often have the biggest effects - and perhaps so far-reaching that it is impossible for us to detect just how much our small decision may have changed the course of our lives - and the lives of others - forever.

The Butterfly Effect. A simple idea derived from a complex physical theory: The flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil can lead to a tornado in Texas. This fall, we have selected four novels that bring this idea to the pages of the book. These critically-acclaimed and award-winning stories are epic - in both the stories themselves and the authors' abilities to write them. The books are enthralling... thought  inducing... heartbreaking... passionate... complicated... and above all, discussion-worthy.

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese	Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann	Room by Emma Donoghue (Available in mid-September)	The Passage by Justin Cronin
Tuesday, September 28 7 PM	Tuesday, October 12 7 PM	Tuesday, November 2 7 PM	Tuesday, November 16 7 PM

It was 11 a.m.

It was Wednesday.

Meet Us on Main Street met.

Were you here? If not, you don't know what you're missing. Well, you kind of do, because I'm going to tell you what we talked about this morning, right here.   

 Erica L. and Abby were on the stools today, and they dished up the latest on "Exceptional Advice for the Extremely Modern Lady," (see Classy, pictured left), and some excellent advice for mystery lovers -- especially faithful readers of Tana French's Dublin murder squad novels (see Faithful Place, also at left).

 In the mood for a South African mystery? (Let the Dead Lie)

What's that new movie that's sad...and someone is sick...??? (Oh,yeah. The Last Song, based, of course(!) on the Nicholas Sparks book.)

Below is a complete list of today's recommended titles.

Meet Us on Main Street meets every Wednesday at 11 a.m. just inside the front door. All are welcome.

Please join us.

I'll get to it. I'll get to it. (Sigh.) If only I'd had a checklist. If only I'd read this book sooner.

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande is my current read. Who knew checklists could be so interesting? And so vital? In a complex world where multi-tasking is the norm, the lowly checklist forces us to pay attention...to try to avoid errors....to try for excellence...to (as the title says) Get Things Right. Using examples from cooking, architecture and engineering, finance, aviation, and most frighteningly, health care, Gawande, a surgeon himself, makes a strong case for this simple tool. Part medical textbook, part self improvement book, and part business book, by the end of the foreward, you'll be adding "to-do list" to your to-do list.

Checklists save lives. Checklists save millions of dollars. Simple statements such as these could lead one to believe that this book is a snooze. Hardly! It is endlessly interesting, sometimes shocking and it is surprisingly entertaining. The Checklist Manifesto is extremely well-researched and well-written and makes for a great, page-turner of a read. The author is a a great storyteller. He includes a seemingly miraculous story of a drowning victim, a child in Austria who'd been under water for 90 minutes. He tells us that two-thirds of death penalty cases are thrown out due to errors, and he quotes the chilling and unforgettable, "'Your mind doesn't think of a bayonet in San Francisco.' John could only say."

Perhaps Gawande's most urgent message is conveyed here: "It somehow feels beneath us to use a checklist, an embarrassment. It runs counter to deeply held beliefs about how the truly great among us - those we aspire to be - handle situations of high stakes and complexity. The truly great are daring. They improvise. They do not have protocols and checklists. Maybe our idea of heroism needs updating." Sobering thoughts.

Reviews? Check.  (Read below)

"Even skeptical readers will find the evidence staggering.... Thoughtfully written and soundly defended, this book calls for medical professionals to improve patient care by adopting a basic, common-sense approach." -- The Washington Post

"I read The Checklist Manifesto in one sitting yesterday, which is an amazing tribute to the book that Gawande has crafted. Not only is the book loaded with fascinating stories, but it honestly changed the way I think about the world. It is the best book I've read in ages." -- Steven Levitt, author of Freakonomics

"Gawande deftly weaves in examples of checklist successes in diverse fields like aviation and skyscraper construction.... Fascinating reading." -- New York Times Book Review

Reserve your copy now? Click here and then...Check!

(While you're busy doing that, I will begin my never-too-late vacation checklist. To begin: Make reservations...)

If you're a rabid Mad Men fan like myself, waiting each week for Sunday night can seem torturous.  Between those weekly doses of Don Draper, indugle in a little Man Men-inspired reading. 

The neurotic men and women of Madison Avenue (and their spouses) have excellent taste in both fashion and  literature; the following is a list of some of the best books read by characters on the show throughout the past four seasons (thus far.)

photo courtesy of Flickr user Beao.

Today, U.S. News & World Report released its list of Best Colleges 2011. Last year, both Princeton University and Harvard University were tied for first place, although Harvard appears to have the edge with this year's rankings. 

Click here to access the complete list of best instutions, which also includes best values in higher education, regional rankings, top business & engineering schools, superior academic programs, and up-and-coming colleges.

And take a look at the list below for books that offer advice on the admissions process.

(Photo courtesy of flickr user charamelody)

For the past few days, a media storm has surrounded Steve Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant who made a bit of an extreme exit from an undesirable situation. And whether you might believe that he is a working-class hero or completely inappropriate, it is very clear that people who make decisions to just pick up and leave the world they are living in -- many times without much thought to the good, bad, and awful consequences of their actions -- fascinate us as humans. Perhaps it's because the idea of being carefree is so appealing, and we admire those who are bold enough to follow their passions, break all the rules, and just...be.

It's also one of the reasons why Elizabeth Gilbert's 2006 memoir, Eat Pray Love, quickly became a best-seller and an inspiration to the millions of women who have enjoyed reading it these past few years. After experiencing a paralyzing divorce, which was soon followed by another very messy romance, the author develops an overwhelming desire to find herself and ignite a passion for living that she once thought she had. This need drives her to leave the life she knew behind and take a chance on a year-long journey through Italy, India, and Indonesia in search of the things that would allow her to feel fulfilled -- food, spirituality, and love. Sure, the idea sounds like a dream (especially with a book deal to boot), but what Gilbert experiences certainly isn't all envy-worthy...

Already an accomplished writer with a National Book Award nomination under her belt, Gilbert rose to international fame (and acclaim) with the release of her memoir. And today, the film adaptation of her journey arrives in theaters with none other than Julia Roberts, the ultimate movie star, playing the author's role. Some might say that acting so carefree is never a wise decision...what about being responsible?

I'd say things have worked out pretty well this time around...

Today is the one and only Friday the 13th in 2010, which brings to mind one of the most memorable opening lines in literature: "It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen." Remember those ominous words from George Orwell's 1984?

We've put together a list of other favorite opening lines below. The first few words of a book are meant to pique our curiosity and involve us immediately...they're often shocking or mysterious, as if we've walked into a compelling conversation that's already underway. "Call me Ishmael," for example. The narrator of Melville's Moby-Dick is establishing a relationship with the reader and in just three words, we want to know more...Who is he? What has he just experienced?

Other favorites include classic lines from Dickens, Tolstoy, Bronte, even Harry Potter. The oft-quoted and satirized first sentence from Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time is here as well: "It was a dark and stormy night."

These opening lines evoke the beginnings of unforgettable journeys that we can take time and again. Happy Friday the 13th and watch out for black cats today!

Call me Ishmael. (Moby-Dick)

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. (Anna Karenina)

Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... (A Tale of Two Cities)

Marley was dead, to begin with. (A Christmas Carol)

There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. (Jane Eyre)

All children, except one, grow up. (Peter Pan)

This is the saddest story I have ever heard. (The Good Soldier)

It was a dark and stormy night. (A Wrinkle in Time)

When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow. (To Kill a Mockingbird)

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again... (Rebecca)

Beginning August 16, the Darien Library will expand its audiobook collection to include downloadable audiobooks from OverDrive. OverDrive is a large database of downloadable audiobooks compatible with iPods and a wide variety of other MP3 players. Providing access to popular new titles as well as classics, OverDrive will be accessible to all Darien Library patrons. Each user may download up to 10 audiobooks at a time. The audiobooks "check out " for 21 days and are automatically returned at the end of the borrowing period. Although you cannot renew an OverDrive audiobook, you may check it out again if no one else is waiting for it. In addition, you can rate audiobooks and share suggestions with friends on email, Twitter, and/or Facebook.

Before you can download audiobooks from OverDrive, you will need to download and install some free software--OverDrive Media Console. The download takes just minutes, and the software makes transferring, burning (when permitted by publisher), and playing audiobooks fast and easy.

We hope you're as excited about this new addition to our audiobook collection as we are! Come in and let us show you how it works.

See you @ the Library!