Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Helen Stein Shack Book Award

Contest News!  Create a Picture Book!

Become a published author!

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

New book~ by local author Sarah Beth Durst




Arriving soon~ Chasing Power, the latest novel by Stony Brook author, Sarah Beth Durst.

Excerpt from the novel: 

Sixteen-year-old Kayla was born with the ability to move things with her mind -- things like credit cards and buttons on cash registers -- and she has become a master shoplifter. She steals to build up enough money for her and her mom to be able to flee if her dad finds them again . . . which would mean grave danger for them both.

For information on this title, click this link:  Chasing Power

Other books in our collection by this author:
  • Drink, Slay, Love 
  • Enchanted Ivy
  • Ice 
  • Into the Wild
  • Vessel





Friday, October 10, 2014

2014 Nobel Prize for Literature~ Patrick Modiano


The Nobel Prize Award for Literature


http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/


The 2014 Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to French writer, Patrick Modiano.  

Patrick Modriano

"Modiano’s works centre on topics such as memory, oblivion, identity and guilt. The city of Paris is often present in the text and can almost be considered a creative participant in the works. Rather often his tales are built on an autobiographical foundation, or on events that took place during the German occupation. He sometimes draws material for his works from interviews, newspaper articles or his own notes accumulated over the years. His novels show an affinity with one another, and it happens that earlier episodes are extended or that persons recur in different tales. The author’s hometown and its history often serve to link the tales together. A work of documentary character, with World War II as background, is Dora Bruder (1997; Dora Bruder, 1999) which builds on the true tale of a fifteen-year old girl in Paris who became one of the victims of the Holocaust. Among the works which most clearly reveal an autobiographical character one notes Un pedigree from 2005" (Nobel Prize in Literature 2014).

Works translated into English include:
  • Night Rounds (1971)
  • Ring Roads (1974) 
  • Missing Person (1980)
  • A Trace of Malice (1988)
  • Honeymoon (1992)
  • Dora Bruder (1999)



Citation:
"The Nobel Prize in Literature 2014 - Bio-bibliography". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 10 Oct 2014. <http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2014/bio-bibl.html>

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Books to Film: The latest




Have you ever read "The Giver" by Lois Lowry?  This book first published in 1993 has become a classic.  It is now a movie starring Brenton Thwaites, Meryl Streep, Taylor Swift, Jeff Bridges, etc. 

Story Plot:

Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives. 

"The Maze Runner" is also now playing at the movie theater.  Based on the book by James Dashner published in 2009. It movie stars Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelari, Will Poulter, etc.

Story Plot: 

Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape.

"Gone Girl", a novel written by Gillian Flynn (2012) is also now a movie and is currently playing in theaters.  The movie stars Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike and Neil Patrick Harris.

Story Plot:

Excerpt from novel: 
Golden boy Nick Dunne, brings his wife, Amy, back to his hometown on the Mississippi River where she is miserable and on their fifth wedding anniversary she disappears, and soon Nick finds himself lying, being deceitful, and acting inappropriately but continues to claim his innocence with his twin sister at his side. 

Check out one of these titles from our library's collection. 



Thursday, June 12, 2014

Book Suggestions for Summer~ WMHS English/Literacy Departments

Looking for a book or two or three to read during the summer?  

Here is a list of recommendations from the Ward Melville High School English department.  Our school library has many of these titles in the collection.  You are welcome to borrow books during the summer.  Stop by the library's front desk and we will assist you.   Have a great summer!




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~       Suggested by
Classic Texts
Contemporary Texts

Dickens, Charles. -Bleak House

Fountain, Ben. -Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
Hawthorne, Nathaniel.  
- The House of the Seven Gables
Wallace, Daniel.  -Big Fish
Hesse, Herman. Siddhartha

Smith, Betty.  A -Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Vonnegut, Kurt.  -Slaughterhouse Five
Momaday, N. Scott.   
-House Made of Dawn
Murakami, Haruki.   
-After Dark
Bulawayo, NoViolet. 
- We Need New Names 

Steinbeck, John.  -East of Eden
Moore, Wes.  -The Other Wes Moore 


 
Ellison, Ralph.   -Invisible Man

Tolstoy, Leo.  -Anna Karenina
Diffenbaugh, Vanessa.  
-The Language of Flowers
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. 
 -Crime and Punishment
Harbach, Chad. -The Art of Fielding
von Goethe, JW.   -Faust
Obreht, Tea. 
-The Tiger’s Wife: A Novel
de Saint-Exupery, Antoine.  
- The Little Prince
Safran Foer, Jonathon.  -Everything is Illuminated.
Angelou, Maya. 
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Otto, Whitney. -How to Make an American Quilt
Morrison, Toni.  -The Bluest Eye
Carroll, Lewis.  -Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Naipaul, VS.  
- A House for Mr. Biswas
Matthiessien, Peter.  
- The Snow Leopard
Alcott, Louisa May. 
- Little Women
Brooks, Geraldine.  March
Gibran, Kahlil.
-The Prophet
Keegan, Marina. -The Opposite of Loneliness


Chaucer, Geoffrey.  -Canterbury Tales
Flynn, Gillian.  -Gone Girl

Woolf, Virginia.  -Mrs. Dalloway
Morrison, Toni.  -Home




Mr. McAuliffe


Mr. Cereola

Ms.Cisar-Buhler


Ms. Cowan's
top 3 picks




Ms. DiIorio




Mr. Eaton


Ms. Etheridge



Ms. Favre



Ms. Gandt 

Dr. Kelso




Ms. Kunkel


Ms. Murolo 

 
Mr. Oatis 


 Ms. Rochford


 Ms. Taliercio


 Mr. Swain


Ms. Thomas
























































































Thursday, May 29, 2014

Literary World Mourns ~ Poet Maya Angelou




The world mourns the loss of beloved poet, Maya Angelou who passed away on May 28, 2014.

More information about her life and works can be found at her official website  http://mayaangelou.com/

Some of her works can be found in our library's collection:
  • All God's children need traveling shoes > Shelf location: 921 ANG
  • The complete poems of Maya Angelou >Shelf location: 811 ANG
  • Conversations with Maya Angelou> Shelf location: 818 ANG PB
  • Even the stars look lonesome> Shelf location: 814 ANG
  • Gather together in my name > Shelf location: 921 ANG
  • The heart of a woman > Shelf location: 921 ANG
  • I know why the caged bird sings > Shelf location: 921 ANG
  • I shall not be moved > Shelf location: 811. 54 ANG
  • Letter to my daughter > Shelf location: 818 ANG
  • A song flung up to heaven > Shelf location: 921 ANG
  • Wouldn't take nothing for my journey now > Shelf location: 818 ANG



Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Sarah Beth Durst's new trilogy

Local author Sarah Beth Durst has just released a new novel titled Lost    It is part of an adult trilogy from Harlequin/Mira publishers. 

 Here is an blurb about the book:

  It's about a woman trapped in a town full of only lost things and lost people.

"One morning, Lauren gets into her car to drive to work, but instead of going left at the light, she drives straight... and drives and drives until she runs out of gas in a town called Lost.  Once there, she can't leave.  The only road out of town is engulfed by an impassable dust storm, and the only people who don't want to kill her are a mysterious wild man called the Finder and a knife-wielding six-year-old girl."- Sarah Beth Durst

For more information about THE LOST go to Sarah Beth Durst's website, it includes the first two chapters and a schedule of upcoming book events.