The Book of Winter Memories by the EPL Staff

     Big flakes of snow began to fall as I sat on my window seat and opened the locked book.  When I touched the pages, I felt a chill like the winter weather outside.  The chill numbed my entire body, and as I looked down at my bare feet, the hardwood floor frosted around them.  The light in the room changed and I looked up to find that I was no longer in a room.
    "Looks like you forgot your shoes there, sonny!"  laughed a short old man with a very long beard.  My eyes slowly adjusted to the harsh whiteness of the magnificent winter wonderland laid out before me.  Then I heard the voice again, "Looks like you forgot your shoes, did you just get out of bed?"
    "Where am I?" I wondered out loud.
    The old man said "Tell me about three things you can see."
     "I see an empty, crumbling stone building; six beautiful trees with white lights, and a mother with her small child.  I see a chair on my porch outside with a shadowy figure in it poised to sit up.  I see that snow is beginning to slow down."
     As the shadowy figure stood, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.  It looked like my grandpa, but it couldn't be, he died on Christmas Eve three years ago.  As the figure took a step closer I said, "Poppy, is that you?"
     The silence that followed seemed never-ending, until he replied, "Yes."  I felt the tears begin to well up in my eyes.  The old man who claimed to be my grandfather rubbed his neck, looking uncomfortable.  "You always were a bit of a crier, weren't you?", he commented.  "What's that book you're hiding there?" he asked with a derisive smirk.
     I kept the book hidden behind my back, reluctant to show him.  But I know I had to show him the book because how else could I find out who he really was?  I revealed the worn, velvet covered tome with an ornate brass lock and watched his eyes widen.
     He slowly reached out and I handed the book over to him.  As he opened the cover, he looked up at me and I felt the cold surround me again.  The light dimmed and I was back in my familiar window seat.  I held the book closed in my hands.  I gazed out the window and felt Poppy's presence still around me ...

Storytime by the EPL Staff

Edmund Amateis, Mail Delivery, 1941

     Six hours into the blizzard, the lights went out in the library.  I wasn't too happy about it, since I was reading a good story, but I was still excited about the snow.  As I looked out the window, I could see through the moonlit flurries a silhouette with poor posture, lurching slowly toward the building.  I hoped it was someone from the power company.     I decided it was high time for me to find whoever was in charge around here.  I got up and slowly stared walking.  I wouldn't be able to see at all if it weren't for the light of the moon shining through the windows.  I moved cautiously toward the circulation desk, hoping to find some in authority.
    "Oh, we didn't see you out there!", exclaimed a friendly voice.  "Please, come join our storytime while we wait for the lights to turn on."  I tiptoed quietly behind the circulation desk and joined the parents and children who were enthusiastically listening to one of my favorite stories, Help! I'm a Prisoner in the Library.
    At that moment, we heard two dogs barking; it sounded like they were in the library.  Luckily, I remembered that dogs were welcome at story hour.  However, I then noticed that the dogs were followed by a hunched man so coated with ice his features were obscured.  He was carrying three dim flashlights whose beams slanted over our rapt faces.  The dogs had such beautiful coats that I took my eyes off the man.  These dogs, as scary as they looked, walked over to our circle and lay down.
    "We've been walking through this snowstorm for hours," the man said.  "These pups are plum tuckered out."  He sat heavily in a chair behind the dogs.  The children were drawn to the man, hoping he had a story to tell them.  They immediately noticed a large knapsack lying next to his feet.  Out of the bag, he pulled a small book with a tattered cover.
    "This is a story I wrote years ago after journeying to the North Pole," said the man.  "It began when I was a young boy and is still in progress. 'Whenever I hear the sound of bells on a snowy night, the magic begins...'"
     The man continued his story long into the night, until we all nodded off to sleep.  In the morning, we awoke at the same time, looking around at one another with sleepy eyes.  We all remembered fantastic tales about  sudden snowstorms, talking dogs with magical powers and curious books that saved the day, but no-one remembered any of the stories the same way.  Was it all a dream?  As we walked out the library door into the bright sparkling morning, we glanced down and saw, lying on top of a pristine snowdrift, a small book with a tattered cover.  On the cover was a golden pawprint.

The Blog Takes a Break...

The staff will be busy reading books at home over the next few weeks, but never fear, we only get a few days off for the holidays!  The Blog, however, will be on a short hiatus. 

The staff have written two round-robin stories to entertain you till the New Year.  We each wrote a sentence, and together, came up with two short tales of intrigue, winter, and of course, books.  Enjoy!

world book night 2012

Posted by Staff

The first World Book Night was held last year in England (see our previous post). The celebration of books and reading will now include the United States and will be observed in both countries on April 23, 2012.  Author Anna Quindlen is the honorary chairwoman for the American expansion of the British give-away.  At this point, an organizational committee has chosen the titles for the giveaway, and is now accepting applications for "book givers".  Applicants have to answer several questions and the hope is to get a diverse group of people to give books to those in populations that are underserved by location, income, or other reasons.  The committee is looking for 50,000 volunteers to give out 20 copies each.

If you are interested, sign up here to be a giver for the first U.S. World Book Night.

Posted by EPL Patron and guest blogger J. Meyer

When we moved to this area in 1976, the first piece of information I learned about the Edwardsville Public Library was that it was a genuine Carnegie Library. I didn't know exactly what that meant—a Carnegie Library.  But it certainly sounded impressive! Our twin daughters, then in kindergarten, thought that a trip to the library was very special. They loved the idea of looking at shelves of books and then, magically, being able to choose several to take home.  When they got older, the main library attraction was D. R., one of the "big high school boys" who worked there.  (Historically, whoever hires the high schoolers who work at the library has a wonderful knack of choosing helpful young people who are very kind to younger patrons!)

When the beautiful addition was completed in 1991 or so, I'm sure I gasped as I first entered the addition and viewed the lovely tall windows overlooking the east lawn and the beautiful Madison County Centennial Monument.  I just sank into the comfortable sofa to marvel at the great view and to think, "What a great place our library is to relax and read." 

And now....in 2011....snacks....coffee....inside a library??!!  Terrific!  And every one on the library team--from the staff to the volunteers--is eager to help a patron locate a book, do research on a computer, make copies--anything one needs.

Finally, some unsung heroes deserve to be mentioned:  the people who have served over the years as members of the Edwardsville Public Library Board.  We certainly salute them as we enter 2012.

And speaking of 2012, thanks for the opportunity to let everyone know that we have an outstanding library.  A splendid new year’s resolution would be:  In 2012, I will spend more afternoons in the Edwardsville Public Library!   

10 Best Books of the Year? You decide

John Singer Sargeat, Man Reading, undated

Posted by Staff

The New York Times recently put out it's list of the 100 Notable Books of the Year.  They further culled the list to the top 10 - five fiction picks and five non-fiction.  Descriptions that follow are paraphrased from the NYT book reviews.

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
At a small college on the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan, the baseball team sees its fortunes rise and then rise some more with the arrival of a supremely gifted shortstop.

11/22/63 by Stephen King
Throughout his career, King has explored fresh ways to blend the ordinary and the supernatural. This new novel imagines a time portal in a Maine diner that lets an English teacher go back to 1958 in an effort to stop Lee Harvey Oswald and ...also allows King to reflect on questions of memory, fate and free will as he richly evokes midcentury America.

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
An alligator theme park, a ghost lover, a Styx-like journey through an Everglades mangrove jungle: Russell’s first novel, about a girl’s bold effort to preserve her grieving family’s way of life, is suffused with humor and gothic whimsy.

Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson
Henderson’s fierce, elegiac novel, her first, follows a group of friends, lovers, parents and children through the straight-edge music scene and the early days of the AIDS epidemic.

The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obrecht
As war returns to the Balkans, a young doctor inflects her grandfather’s folk tales with stories of her own coming of age, creating a vibrant collage of historical testimony that has neither date nor dateline.

Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens
Our intellectual omnivore’s latest collection could be his last (he’s dying of esophageal cancer). The book is almost 800 pages, contains more than 100 essays and addresses a ridiculously wide range of topics, including Afghanistan, Harry Potter, Thomas Jefferson, waterboarding, Henry VIII, Saul Bellow and the Ten Commandments, which Hitchens helpfully revises.

The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Journey to Understand His Extraordinary Son by Ian Brown.
A feature writer at The Globe and Mail in Toronto, Brown combines a reporter’s curiosity with a novelist’s instinctive feel for the unknowable in this exquisite book, an account ... of his son, Walker, who was born with a rare genetic mutation that has deprived him of even the most rudimentary capacities.

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable.
From petty criminal to drug user to prisoner to minister to separatist to humanist to martyr. Marable, who worked for more than a decade on the book and died earlier this year, offers a more complete and unvarnished portrait of Malcolm X than the one found in his autobiography. The story remains inspiring.

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
We overestimate the importance of whatever it is we’re thinking about. We misremember the past and misjudge what will make us happy. In this comprehensive presentation of a life’s work, the world’s most influential psychologist demonstrates that irrationality is in our bones, and we are not necessarily the worse for it.

A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in America's Civil War by Amanda Foreman.
Which side would Great Britain support during the Civil War? Foreman gives us an enormous cast of characters and a wealth of vivid description in her lavish examination of a second battle between North and South, the trans-Atlantic one waged for British hearts and minds. 

Just like ants - on the move...

Muromachi, Ants Hauling a Pumpkin, 1492

Posted by EPL patron and guest blogger M. Lemke

My husband claims I have ants in my pants.  He's right!  I love to travel and am always bugging him to go somewhere - a trip to another state or country or continent.  When I can't go somewhere, I do the next best thing - I grab a book and read about a place I would like to visit.

Recently, I went Spain with Chris Steward in Driving Over Lemons.  He bought a farm there and loved the area.  Michael Jacobs and I explored the mountains from top to bottom in his book Andes.

Not all my book trips are for fun.  One of my most meaningful trips was to Africa when I read The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapaschinski.  I learned a  lot  about the countries where so much bloodshed had, and is now, taking place.  Alice Hoffman wrote The Dovekeepers which tell the history of the Masada tragedy.

These special trips can be very informative.  After reading A House in Fez by Suzanna Clarke, I learned to never, ever, buy a house in a foreign country and have locals repair it when you aren't there.  What a mess that was!

My very favorite trip was with Bill Bryson when we hiked the Appalachian Trial in A Walk in the Woods.  Yes, I have ants and I don't intend to do anything about getting rid of them.

Steampunk: Part 1, The Early Days

Alphonse du Neuville, Captian Nemo from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 1863

Posted by Alana T.

No so long ago, fiction featuring adventure, strange clockwork machines and alternate histories would be found primarily in the Science Fiction or Fantasy section.  The genre, now called Steampunk, has become so popular that it's most common elements are finding their way into mainstream fiction. How to recognize it?  Jeff Vandermeer (The Steampunk Bible) broadly defines the genre in the following way:
"STEAMPUNK = Mad Scientist Inventor [invention (steam x airship or metal man /baroque stylings) x (pseudo) Victorian setting] + progressive or reactionary politics x adventure plot."

The fathers of the genre are Jules Verne (The Demon of Cawnpore, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, From the Earth to the Moon, A Journey to the Center of the Earth) and H.G. Wells (The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, The Invisible Man).  We take for granted many of the inventions and adventures described in those old pages, but at the time of first publication, these ideas fostered feelings of awe that are captured in the genre today. Edgar Allen Poe is also considered an influential author in the development of the genre because so many of his fiction works feature the importance of 'modern' scientific thought and inventions.

The following give you an idea of the first and most lauded steampunk stories published before 2000:

The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers (1983). Wellsian time travel with a story of ancient gods and British rule over Egypt

Lord Kelvin's Machine (1985) a short story by Michael Moorcok. Featuring the historical Lord Kelvin, a physicist and engineer; dirigibles are a big part of the story.

The Difference Engine by W. Gibson and B. Sterling (1990).  Set in a distopian 1855 alternate reality in which Charles Babbage succeeds in building a mechanical computer. 

Part II will discuss the best of the more recent Steampunk offerings.

The Best Gift Book Ever!

Posted by Staff

Growing up, most of us received books as holiday gifts.  For some of us, this was a welcome event, for others, pretty dull compared to the toys.  Either way, we all have memories of those old books that we've carried with us into our adult lives.  Many of those books shaped who we are today.  Following are some stories of the most memorable book-related gifts we've received as children.

Pam O.: Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindberger.  Received from my mother during a difficult time, it's a lovely book where the author explores phases of life inspired by the shells on the sea shore... "She helps readers find space for contemplation and creativity within their own lives."

Alana T.: Beatrix Potter books.  When I was little, my grandfather and great aunt would each send me a book every Christmas.  The books were tiny and full of quirky animals.  Perfect!  These are the only books I remember receiving as a gift.

Cary H.: The Little House on the Prairie complete book set.  It came in a box that held all the books.  I loved to read thing in order, so I was thrilled they were numbered. I was about 10.

Amanda E.:  The Anne of Green Gables boxed set when I was in grade school.  Love!

Judy T.: That Summer on Catalpa Street.  My father bought these for me when he came home from a business trip.  I was about 8 a the time and it seemed like such a grown-up present.  I absolutely adored that book - for years.

Deanne H.: Oh the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss.  My daughter gave me this for my graduation from library school.  We attended the University of Illinois together.

Karen K.:  The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart.  Given to me by my wonderful grandmother, these books carried me to Camelot and brought all the legends of Merlin and King Arthur to life.  Then, I had to go on and read the other books in the trilogy.

Jessica W.:  McElligot's Pool by Dr. Seuss.  My Mom gave this to me for Christmas after I had almost continually had it continually checked out from the library for over four months!  I was so happy when I had a copy of my own!

Zach H.: Time Travel In Einstein's Universe by J. Richard Gott.  Using science fiction and physics as a guide, Gott explains the possibility of time travel.

Katherine R.: Kneadlessly Simple: Fabulous, Fuss-Free, No-Knead Breads by Nancy Baggett.  The best no-knead bread book I've found.

My all-time favorite McCaffrey book

Posted by Alana T.

A few weeks ago, Anne McCaffrey passed away at the age of 85 (see her obituary in the New York Times here).  She wrote many books that incorporated elements of both fantasy and science fiction, and is best known for her Dragonriders Series.  Her main characters were often strong-willed adolescents or young women who beat the odds to save the day.  There was lots of adventure, tricky politics, and dragons!  Not only were they fierce and fire-breathing, they were intelligent, emotional individuals who had complicated relationships with humans. The current and very popular dragon-based stories (e.g. TheTemeraire Series by Naomi Novik or The Inheritance Cycle by C. Paolini) owe a great debt to McCaffrey who initiated the idea of telepathic dragons who have positive interactions with humans.

Her first books were published in the late 60's and she continued to write until recently.  She won both a Hugo and a Nebula Award for her Dragonriders works.  For a list (and it's a long one!) of all her works available through the ILHS, click here.

Library mystery solved... or is it?

photos copyright chrisdonia

Posted by Alana T.

Back in September, I described the mysterious (and lovely) book sculptures anonymously donated to various libraries in Edinburgh.  The story has traveled around the world and book lovers everywhere are touched by the beauty of the sculptures as well as the generosity and creativity of the artist. Up until now, the name of the artist has been unknown.  Recently, an Edinburgh librarian said he had figured out who the artist is.  In an interesting turn of events, the local newspaper decided to poll it's readers to determine if the paper should reveal the name of the artist or honor his/her wish to remain anonymous   The readers responded indicating that they would rather not know, they would rather live with the mystery.  For more details, visit NPR for a recent update.  What a wonderful story.