New Booktalk Booklist - Great Books to Give as Gifts 2012

Lincoln City Libraries' Youth Services Coodinator Vicki Wood presented her annual booktalk on Great Books to Give as Gifts at both the Bethany and Gere BooksTalks groups in November, as well as at the December "Lunch at the Library" presentation at Bennett Martin Public Library downtown. [Click here to check out the current schedule of Book Talks.]

Vicki's booktalk booklist was formatted as a PowerPoint slideshow, which you can view at the following link on the libraries' website:

Great Books to Give as Gifts [2012]

 

You can also find some of Vicki's past "Great Books to Give as Gifts" booktalks (a year-end tradition) mixed in with our index of past Booktalk Booklists.

New Book Talk Booklist: The Brain...and What Can Go Wrong With It

The Brain...and What Can Go Wrong With It
Courtyard Book Chats, July 28, 2009
Vicki W.


In the Shadow of Memory
by Floyd Skoot [612.82 Skl]
Born on a Blue Day
by Daniell Tammet [B T147]
My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey
by Jill Bolte Taylor [616.81 Tay]
Beautiful Boy
by David Sheff [362.299 She]
Tweak
by Nic Sheff [j Biography Sheff]

The Tender Bar

The Tender Bar

by J.R. Moehringer [Compact Disc B M719]

Moehringer's memoir of growing up fatherless in his grandparent's chaotic household under the tutelage of his bartender uncle Charlie and the regulars of Long Island's Publicans bar. Moeringer's view of his mentors- seen through both the eyes of youth and experience- are lovingly brought to life, each individual's character carefully sketched to reveal both their heroic attributes and their fatal flaws. -- recommended by Vicki W. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[Also available in print format.][ official The Tender Bar web site ] [ J.R. Moehringer at Wikipedia ]

Have you read or listedn to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

Ten (or more) new reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog over the course of the entire month.

Staff Recommendation - Run

Run
by Ann Patchett

I love to read Patchett's fiction because you never know where she will take you. Her latest novel is set in Boston and the action of the novel takes place all in a few days when Doyle, former white mayor of the city and, his two twenty-something adopted black sons, Tip and Teddy, find their lives intersecting with a black single mother, Tennessee and her 11-year-old daughter Kenya after Tennessee throws herself in front of a car to save Tip from the oncoming vehicle. The action plays out amid a snowstorm that has brought many parts of the city to a standstill. Issues of family, race, identity and our connections to each other all come into play as the story evolves. -- recommended by Vicki W. -- Bennett Martin Public Library/Youth Services

[ official Run page on the official Ann Patchett web site ]

Have you read this one? What did you think?

Ten new reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog over the course of the entire month.

New Booktalk Booklist - Books in Pairs

Books in Pairs

In April 2007, booktalker Vicki W. presented a popular booktalk at both Bethany and Gere branches on "paired books". No, not books about au pairs, but rather books that work well when read together -- books that compliment each other or provide two diverse looks at the same topic or event.

You can see Vicki's full Book Talk Booklist at: Books in Pairs, including links into the library catalog to check on the status of each title.

In the meantime, here's a list of her titles, paired up of course!

Books in Pairs

Are You Looking for an Epic?
Independent People by Halldor Laxness (and)
The Greenlanders by Jane Smiley

Life Under the Ayatollah
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (and)
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
additional suggestion -- the movie Ten, directed by Abbas Kiarostami

Getting Up in Arms About the Environment
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver (and)
All Over Creation by Ruth Ozeki
additional suggestion -- the movie The Real Dirt on Farmer Brown, directed by Taggart Siegel

What Were They Thinking???
Swimming to Antarctica by Lynne Cox (and)
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

Tragic Talent
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy (and)
Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett
additional suggestion -- Savage Beauty: A Biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford

How It All Happened
The 9/11 Commission Report by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (and)
The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation by Sis Jacobsen and Ernie Colon

Small Town Special
Population 485 by Michael Perry (and)
The Lobster Chronicles by Linda Greenlaw
and
Stones From the River by Ursula Hegi (and)
Over a Thousand Hills I Walk With You by Hanna Jansen

The Normal, Extraordinary Life
A Girl Named Zippy (and)
She Got Up Off the Couch and Other Heroic Acts From Mooreland, Indiana, both by Haven Kimmel

Surviving Your Childhood
The Liars Club (and)
Cherry both by Mary Karr

Do You Love the #1 Ladies Detective Agency?
Friends, Lovers, Chocolate by Alexanders McCall-Smith (featuring Isabel Dalhousie) (and)
The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs by Alexander McCall-Smith (featuring Professsor VanIgelfeld)

The Mind From the Inside Out
Thinking in Pictures by Temple Grandin (and)
In the Shadow of Memory by Floyd Skloot

Cultural Misunderstanding
Kingsfishers Catch Fire by Rumer Godden (and)
The Romantics by Pankaj Mishra