Great Gift ideas for the Folks!

Are you searching for the perfect gift for your parents this Holiday season? If so, look no further! We've got great suggestions for the Dad who loves nothing but sports, for the Mom who reads Historical Romances...for the parent who seems to have it all. If we haven't covered it, stop in and see us!

For the Sports Nut

ESPN College Football Encyclopedia,by Michael MacCambridge

This is IT! The all-encompassing College Football encyclopedia for the person who just can't get enough.

For the Cosmopolitan Lady

The Beauty Buyble: the Best Beauty Products for 2007

This pretty pink box contains a plethora of fun make-up, lotion, oil and beauty products from all the best names in the business and a book full of the best products of 2007!

Almost a Crime, by Penny Vincenzi

"Meet Tom and Octavia Fleming.

For the Memoir Lover

The Tender Bar, by J.R Moehringer

The History of Swimming, by Kim Powers

The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls

An Alphabetical Life, by Wendy Werris

The Thunderbolt Kid, by Bill Bryson

For theTrivia Buffs

The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived, by Allan Lazar

Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs, by Ken Jennings

For the Work-a-holics

Mavericks at Work: Why the most origional minds in business win, by William Taylor

Who Moved my Cheese, by Spencer Johnson

Good to Great, by Jim Collins

For the Adventurers

The Places in Between, by Rory Stewart

The Last Season, by Eric Blehm

Miracle in the Andes, by Nando Parrado

For the History Connesseoir

Mysteries of the Middle Ages, by Tomas Cahill

River of Doubt, by Candice Millard

Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin

Brand New "Fables" Graphic Novel!

If you haven't gotten into the dynamite series "Fables" yet, here's a brand new crash course volume called "1001 Nights of Snowfall."
But first, let's have some back story, shall we? "Fables" is about all of our favorite fairytale folks living in modern day New York City, having been chased from their fairylands by the evil "adversary." Snow White is in charge of all city hall operations and the Big Bad Wolf has ventured over to the good side, much to the chagrin of a few little piggies we all know.

Now, in homage to Scheherezade, Snow White pulls 1001 stories out of her hat to keep her clever self alive. These stories prequel the series and feature an array of characters: Hansel, Gretel and the Witch, Snow White and some darn creepy dwarves, the sweet frog prince.

These stories can be read alone or as an addictive suppliment to the series. Can you tell how much I love these things?!

Interactive Chick-Lit!

Brand-spanking new Cathy's Book: If Found Call 650-266-8233, is an interactive, multi-media wonder! It's in the form of a journal/art notebook and is written from 17-year-old Cathy's perspective on the strange circumstances following her break-up with her older, enigmatic boyfriend. If you like The Gossip Girls books, you'll be sure to appreciate the saucy, chick-lit nature of this innovative book.
But the best part of all is that you can follow Cathy's journey through the phone numbers that dial to real answering machines, and the websites that give clues to the story. Go ahead, give it a try: call 650-266-8233!

Name that First Sentence!

Hello and welcome to NAME THAT FIRST SENTENCE!The game show that asks the critical questions and tests your literary I.Q. See how many of these opening lines you can identify:

Catagory 1: The easy stuff

1. "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want for a wife."

2. "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times."

3. "Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show."

4. "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."

5. "The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way toward the lagoon."

Catagory 2: The Middle Road

1. "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."

2. "Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning."

3. "I first met Dean not long after my wife and I split up."

4. "A Spectre is haunting Europe--the spectre of communism."

5. "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

Catagory 3: The Doozies!

1. "Granted: I am an inmate of a mental hospital; my keeper is watching me, he never lets me out of his sight; there's a peep-hole in the door, and my keeper's eye is the shade of brown that can never see through a blue-eyed type like me."

2."In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself in a dark wood where the straight way was lost."

3."riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle ans Environs."

4. "At this point I interrupted my sister as usual to say, 'You have a way with words, Scheherazade.'"

5. "To the as-yet-unborn, to all innocent wisps of undifferentiated nothing: Watch out for life."

Banned Book Week!

Banned Books week begins on September 23rd and we at McLean&Eakin suggest you feed the cause by reading something somebody doesn't want you to read. No, this isn't an invitation to dip into that newest Gossip Girls Book your mom forbids you to read! This is a chance to discover a new world that was once forbidden to us. Some of our favorite Banned Books are: To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, The Giver, by Lois Lowry, and (can you believe it?!) Where's Waldo?

To see a full list of all the banned books you could tick someone off by reading, check out the American Library Association: http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bannedbooksweek.htm

It's Never too Early for Scary Books!

If you're anything like me, you cannot wait for Halloween to get here. So I decree the end of September and the whole darn month of October Scary Book Season!
If you're into heart-thumping, pulse-racing, I feel queasy because this is so scary, then read:
Carrie, by Stephen King (If you've seen the movie, but haven't read the book, you haven't begun to understand creepy! Carrie is telekinetic and has a warped home life. This is a macabre classic with explosive results.)
I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson (Written in the 50s, I Am Legend takes place in the 70s and is the terrifying tale of the last man on Earth. What happened to all the other people? Why, they were all transformed into Zombie/Vampire people and every day they try to eat the last man. Described as the scariest and best vampire book since Dracula, this book can be found in our classics section.)
Crooked Tree, Robert Wilson (The old Native American legend of Bear Walkers comes to light in this shuddersome novel which takes place in our neck of the woods--literally! You won't go camping without Bear Mace ever again.)

If you fancy an intense psychological thriller, a book that pulls you into itself and won't let go, then read:

Tell No One, by Harlan Coben(A man and his wife go on vacation, but the wife disappears suddenly and without notice...now, 15 years later, the dude gets these calls from his otherwise-presumed-dead wife. Is it really she, back from the dead, or does he now have a very sinister stalker?)

I'm Not Scared, by Niccolo Ammaniti (A little boy in Italy finds what he thinks is the dead body of a boy his own age, but he is too afraid to tell anybody else. Very original, very intense.)

Looking for some great Ghost Stories, tales of horror and pain, legends of supernatural? Read:

Will Storr vs.the Supernatural, by Will Storr(Crazy-man journalist takes an adventure through the spookiest haunted houses and true ghost stories of America. His metaphysical sherpa? A self-proclaimed "demonologist"!)

The Homecoming, by Ray Bradbury (The classic short story is back, but set to ink with illustrations and hair-raising images that pump this goulish story full of life. It's a brand-spanking new edition and a must-read for Halloween.)

If you're looking, instead, for a seriously funny, scary book, then look no further than:

The Witches, by Roald Dahl(This is a book for all ages--which generally means it's meant for kids, but this time I really mean all ages! Dahl is a master storyteller and this book will have you studying the faces and feet of your neighbors to make certain you're not living next to a witch! But, you probably are. Witches, as Dahl assures us, are everywhere.)

World War Z, by Max Brooks--aka Son of Mel (Similar in theme to I Am Legend, we once again find ourselves having survived a Zombie Pandemic! Brooks tells this story straight-faced and at times paints a very realistic picture of what our world would be like after another major war...albeit this one is with the raveneous un-dead. If you liked the movie Shawn of the Dead and/or the 9/11 commision report, World War Z is the scary book for you!)

Not sooooo new, but new to our hearts! "I Am the Messenger"

From the Aussie who brought us one of our all-time-favorite books(The Book Thief), comes (or rather came, as it was published a few years ago) I Am the Messenger. This book has got it all!

Ed's an under-age cab driver who's on a fast track to nowhere, hopelessy in love with his best friend Audrey, and destined to follow in his alcoholic father's footsteps to an early grave and an unfulfilled life. Unexpectedly, however, Ed stops a bank robbery and his life changes dramatically. Just brimming with mystery and heart and inventive prose, I am the Messenger is one of my new favorite books!

Wonderful World of Blicks...wait, what's a Blick?

Blicks, dear reader, are what happen to books when they become movies. More often than not, the book is way better than the movie. Take, for instance, The DaVinci Code, which was a thrilling and fun book, but which translated kind of flatly to the screen. I mean c'mon, Tom Hanks as Langdon?! He's not exactly the dashing hero I envisioned. But then you've got a movie like The Devil Wears Prada, which brings a dash of humanity to the villian completely lacking in the book...and well, you get to see some really great clothes, and then there's Brokeback Mountain which is far more developed than the sparsely written short story. There are even some really fabulous movies that I had no idea were novels first!


So, Whadda think about these following Movies/Books. Which version is better and Why?

Hoot

Sin City

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

The Devil Wears Prada

The Borne Supremecy

Harry Potter (any or all of them)

Ella Enchanted

Pride and Prejudice

Brokeback Mountain

V is for Vendetta

The Princess Bride

Cold Mountain

The Princess Diaries

In her Shoes

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Memoirs of a Geisha

Angela's Ashes

Carrie

Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen

Dead Poet's Society

Clueless/ Emma

High Fidelity

The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Holes

Jurassic Park

Lord of the Flies

The Outsiders

Rebecca

Sense and Sensiblity

A Series of Unfortuante Events

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Speak

To Kill a Mockingbird

Where the Heart Is

Don't Hurt Your Brain! Fun Summer Reads...

So, it's Summer and it's gosh darn hot and perhaps you've been having some minor difficulties focusing on that big thick book about the Boxer Rebellion. Hey, now! Abandon all ye boring books, ye who enter here, Summer is for FUN reading! It's for hanging out by the lake with your friends, quoting ridiculous quips from your beach ready reads, and not thinking too awfully hard. Give your poor brain a break and read something really fun and frivolous for a change.

Found II, by Davy Rothbart

Admit it, you've surrepticiously picked up a folded note addressed to someone else and drooled over the uninvited peek into another person's life. Imagine stumbling upon an entire book full of abandoned love letters, laundry lists, weird pictures, song lyrics from all around the country and from all walks of life. And who would have suspected that such a book could be so funny and heartbreakingly sad at the same time. A great book to read aloud with friends, it's the stark honesty reality programs only wish they could harness.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams

So, you wake one morning to discover your home is about to be demolished due to its extreme misfortune of being directly in the path of an ambitious bulldozer paving a new super-highway. What do you do? Well, of course, you pop out to have a pint with your friend--who's actually been, to your astonishment, an undercover alien spy this whole time, waiting, as it were, for his ship to come in. What else is there to do, but stick your thumb out into the air and hitchhike on to bigger and better destinations? Hitchhiker's Guide is so funny and absurd and just brimming with odd English humour. What else do you really need?

The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett

They're small. They're blue. And nobody messes with them. Oh, man it's great already. But wait, there's more. Young witch-to-be Tiffany Aching and these minute terrors of the not so high seas (well, what, the wee free men are only six-inches tall) band together to defend they're homeland against the monsters of Fairyland.

The Princess Bride, by William Goldman

The Princess Bride has it all: "Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest ladies. Snakes. Spiders. Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passion. Miracles." You'll get so caught up in this wickedly funny and charming story you won't realize that you've sat and read the whole day and are now sporting a nasty sunburn. So, apply sunscreen liberally before heading out to the dock for some light reading.

Who We Are & What We Love

If you missed our After Hours Teen Night, I just know you're slapping your foreheads for shame, for shame! wondering what fabulous books you missed out on! Not to worry, friends. The following is The List of our favorite books for teens. If you like the picks of a particular person, don't hestitate to come up to him/her and ask what else we like. Seriously, it's what we live for.

Jessilyn's Picks:

1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Death meets the Book Thief, a 9-year-old girl named Liesel Meminger, when he comes to take her little brother. She is too interesting to ignore, and he tells the story of her childhood.

2. 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

This whirlwind adventure begins as Ginny, 17, receives 13 letters in a box from her sprited, unpredictable Aunt Peg.

3. Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger

Mixing nostolgia, baseball and a boy's correspondences with a 1940s baseball star, this inventive but sentimental novel is told through fictional newspaper clippings, telegrams, war dispatches, report cards and other documentary fragments.

4. Fables by Bill Willingham

This elaborate fantasy series begins as a whodunit, but quickly unfurls into a much larger story about fabletown, a place where fairy tale legends live alongside regular New Yorkers.

Matt's Picks

1. Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn

The debut novel is set in a feudal Japan on the edge of the imagination.

2. 100 Bullets by Brian Azzarello

What would you do if you were given the opportunity and the means to get away with murder scot-free? That's the question posed in 100 Bullets.

3. Crooked Tree by Robert Wilson

Crooked Tree evokes ab old Ottawa Indian Legend as it explores the strange and increasingly violent behavior of some large furry woodland creatures.

4. Y: The Last Man by Brian Vaughan

Yorick is the last man on Earth, and in the resulting chaos, he must find a way to help save the human race.

Leighanne's Picks

1. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Nine-year-old Ender Wiggin's skill make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity.

2. The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman

Here, Earth is one of only five planets in the solar system, every human has a daemon (the soul embodied as an animal familiar) and, in a time similar to our late 19th century, Oxford scholars and agents of the supreme Calvanist Church are in a race to unleash the power that will enable them to cross the bridge to a parallel universe.

3. La Linea by Ann Jaramillo

Six years ago, Miguel and Elena's mother and father left Mexico and crossed la linea into California. On the morning of Miguel's 15th birthday, he recieves a note from his father telling him it is time to join them.

4. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The Alchemist presents a simple fable based on simple truths and places it in a highly unique situation.

Bryan Charles: Author Signing July 12th, 1-3 pm

Bryan Charles, the fellow who wrote Grab on to Me Tightly as if I Knew the Way, will be at McLean&Eakin July 12th from 1-3 pm signing his book.


It's 1992, and as Vim Sweeney deals with the recent end of his high school career and the uncertainty of his future, America shares his angst. In Seattle, Kurt Cobain reeks of teen spirit. In Washington, George Bush (the first one) has just finished rattling his saber at Saddam Hussein. And in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Vim is trying to put off adulthood and all that comes with it, whatever that is, for as long as he can. He's already juggling guitars, girls, and a long-absent biological father who's suddenly making noise about Wanting to Be Involved. And he still can't convince his friends why local schoolboy hero Derek Jeter is bound for obscurity.
Grab On to Me Tightly as if I Knew the Way traces Vim's stumble toward adulthood as he comes to terms with his parents, balances friendships and infatuation with varying levels of success, and accepts that the things he thought would last forever probably won't. Generous in spirit and laugh-out-loud funny, here is a novel that introduces a tremendous new talent and deftly captures the alternately amusing and harrowing process of holding on until you find your way.



Q: In the acknowledgements, you say that your years in Kalamazoo, MI, helped define you. How much of your own life is reflected in Vim's?


A: Well I can't lie—not that anyone would believe me anyway—but quite a bit of my life is reflected in Vim's—my parents divorced when I was quite young, I was obsessed with tits and music, I played in a band, at some point in my late teens, my biological father, whom I'd never been close to, did decide that that was the perfect time to really start bonding and he started making those bland kind of overtures, saying "now we can be a family." Oh, and he did send a note my first summer out of high school, though in reality much shorter and to the point, saying he'd heard I quit my job and that was very irresponsible of me and I was wasting my time, etc. So the book is certainly autobiographical in the broad sense. At the same time, many of the particulars are invented, perhaps most notably the character of Helene. I mean, I did meet a girl who resembled her physically, under similar circumstances—she had scars on her arms, she was reading Naked Lunch, it was hot—but the rest is made up, her personality, those situations, the band ending in that way. It was more like I was going from feeling there, thinking of all the borderline-obsessive crushes I've had over the years, the hot urgent longing for just that one kiss, if I could just get that one kiss, you know, then I could die happy. And I'm not talking about just my teen years here, this is well into my adulthood, until pretty much now. And that's the thing that may surprise people in terms of the book being autobiographical—surprise people or embarrass me, I can't tell which—but my mindset is still very much like Vim's, that kind of extreme highs and lows, happy and sad acting out kind of thing. When I was writing the book, I was all over the map emotionally. I was dealing with some things and I'd just quit a well-paying job with a lot of comfortable adult perks like health insurance and all that, but my heart wasn't in it—was twenty million miles from it, actually—and I had to take the leap. My mom flew out to New York to try and talk me out of it. "Well, hold on here, don't do anything rash." But I did, and as I was writing, I thought a lot about freedom in the existential sense and I sat in my room asking myself all kinds of questions like "Why am I here?," all this stuff we tend to associate with a kind of teenage solipsism, or like an undergrad on weed. But I was 27, 28, and I put it all in there. So there are definite parallels between Vim's and my early life, but the book is also closer to the way I think and feel now than one might expect. It's probably truer than most memoirs coming out these days.

Jim Lynch and a Happy Hour to Boot!

Tons of folks have been coming in for a copy of The Highest Tide, written by Jim Lynch, for their AP English class at Petoskey High. But did you know that said author is going to be here July 10th for a signing and a shin-dig? Come and meet Mr. Lynch and then you can show off in the Fall and and brag about how you're on a first name basis with a famous author!

Jim Lynch will be at McLean&Eakin July 10th, 6:30 to 8:30.

The event is free, but tickets are required. Call ahead to reserve a seat.

231-347-1180

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La Linea and Illegal Immigration

La Linea, by Ann Jaramillo
Miguel's life is just beginning. Or so he thinks. Fifteen-year-old Miguel leaves his rancho deep in Mexico to migrate to California across la linea, the border, in a debut novel of life-changing, cliff-hanging moments. But Miguel's carefully laid plans change suddenly when his younger sister Elena stows away and follows him. Together, Miguel and Elena endure hardships and danger on their journey of desperation and desire, loyalty and betrayal. An epilogue, set ten years after the events of the story, shows that you can't always count on dreams--even the ones that come true.

Ann Jaramillo's La Linea has debuted at an extremely important and interesting time in our country's history. The debate surrounding Illegal Immigration has reached its boiling point in several states as, according to NPR, "...congress Debates the most sweeping overhaul of U.S. immigration law in two decades." If you find yourself slightly lost among the facts and heated discussions, here's a breakdown of the situation as seen on NPR's website:

The Immigration Debate

There are more than 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States, and more arrive each day--putting a strain on health and education services, but also filling low-wage jobs in key sectors of the U.S economy.

President Bush wants to deploy National Guard troops to tighten border security...the Senate's plan includes a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country. A House measure is less forgiving.

M&E presents...After Hours, July 9th

On Sunday, July ninth, we are hosting an After-Hours teen night at McLean&Eakin, which means that we are closing our doors to adults and opening them to anyone of the teenage persuasion. You are all welcome to join us for an evening of book talks, good grub, music and fun. We'll discuss our favorite books and recommend some great picks for all age-groups. Remember, the more the merrier, so bring your friends.

You Want It? You Got It! Our Favorite Graphic Novels!

Our Top Three Favorites

100 Bullets by Brian Azzarello:
This series is so much fun. It’s 10th volume is about to come out and there is no better time to get swept up in it. Imagine that you have a pretty terrible life and one day a man knocks on your door with a briefcase containing undeniable evidence that there is one person who’s responsible. Along with this evidence you are given a gun and one hundred untraceable bullets. No police agency will investigate any crime committed with these bullets. What would you do?

Fables by Bill Willingham:
Forced out of their home world by an invading army our childhood fabled characters have been made refugees in our world with most of them residing in modern day New York. Goldilocks is planning a revolution with the three bears, Snow White is messing around with the Big Bad Wolf, and Prince Charming… well he’s screwing just about everyone. The 7th volume is nearly out and this series is showing no sign of slowing its pace with each new book packed with twist and turns

Y: The Last Man by Brian K Vaughan
Never have I enjoyed a G.N. so much and had so much trouble telling people why it’s great. Yorick is the last man on earth and it is no paradise. A plague has swept the earth killing everything with a Y chromosome except Yorick… and his monkey. “OOOOKKAAAYY?” you are saying to yourself, but truly this is worth taking a look at, why else would it have been reviewed recently on NPR’s “All Things Considered”. Give it a chance you’ll probably find this world without men pretty addicting.

ALA's Outstanding Books for the College Bound

So, if you're heading off to college in the fall, chances are that you've given some really serious thought to your major. Very serious thought. And don't worry, you'll continue that serious thought until someone (parents, school, the government, your friendly local militia) forces you to make a decision, at which point you'll probably opt for Business or English and call it a day.

C'mon, you know it's true.


But, rest assured, it's not actually that tricky to choose the right major. You see, you already know what you like. Sure you do. You like ice cream and puppies and reading detailed biographies of Hugo Chavez. Well, then, chances are you'd be happy in History or Political Science classes. You get my drift? In college you read a ton. If you're reading what you love to read, College is a pleasant breeze.


Which brings me to...
The American Library Association has put together a selection of fabulous books organized into the five academic disciplines. It's rather clever.


HISTORY
The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition, by Caroline Alexander
Witch-Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials, by Marc Aronson
Lindbergh, by Scott A. Berg
The Farming of Bones, by Edwidge Danticat
Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, by Joseph Ellis
Understanding September 11: Answering Questions about the Attacks on America, by Frank Mitch
Troy, by Adele Geras
The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century, by Peter Watson
Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World, by Jack Weatherford Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883, by Simon Winchester

HUMANITIES
Sarah, by Orson Scott Card
Exploring World Art, by Andrea P. Belloli
Bee Season, by Maya Goldberg
What does it Mean to be Human? Reverance for Life Reaffirmed by Responses From Around the World, by Frederick Franck
The Black Chord, by David Corio
Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture
Photography, An Illustrated History, by Martin Sandler
The Illustrated World's Religions: A Guide to Our Wisdom Traditions, Huston Smith
The Passion of Artemisia, by Susan Vreeland
Encyclopedia of Acting Techinques, by John Perry

LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE ARTS
Go and Come Back, by Joan Abelove
Bastard out of Carlolina, by Dorothy Allison
In the Time of Butterflies, by Julia Alverez
Feed, M.T Anderson
Caramelo, by Sandra Cisneros
How to Read Literarture Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines, by Thomas Foster
19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, by Naomi Shihab Nye
Lucky, by Alice Seabold
The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Inventing Modern America: From the Microwave to the Mouse, by David Brown
A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson
What Do You Care What Other People Think? Further Adventures of a Curious Character, by Richard Feynman
In Code: A Mathmatical Journey, by Sarah Flannery
The Universe in a Nutshell, by Stephen Hawking
The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, the World's Most Astonishing Number, Mario Livio
Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race, by Stephanie Nolen
Madness: A Brief History, Roy Porter
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach
The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science that Reveals Our Gentetic Ancestry, by Bryan Sykes

SOCIAL SCIENCES
Tuesdays with Morrie: an Old Man, a Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson, by Mitch Albom
Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists, by Joel Best
Speak Truth to Power: Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing Our World, by Kerry Kennedy Cuomo
Light at the Edge of the World: A Journey Through the Realm of Vanishing Cultures, by Wade Davis
Why Terrorism Works: Understanding the Threat, Responding to the Challenge, by Alan Dershowitz
Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, by Mark Haddon
Caucasia, by Danzy Senna
Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science, by Charles Wheelan

Author Blogs, Links and the Gooey Goods

I was poking about the web and chanced upon some pretty wonderful blogs written dutifully by some pretty wonderful authors. Yea, the days have passed when you could only admire your favorite authors from afar, when they maintained their mysterious mystique and remained famous and unattainable. Now, what with authors writing daily online journals, not only can you read all about what they've eaten for breakfast, but you can actually chat with them about books, ideas and day-to-day life stuff!

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Speak, Prom and Catalyst are not the only things Laurie Halse Anderson has written recently. She keeps quite busy on her blog, "Wild Woman in the Forest;" just go to http://halseanderson.livejournal.com

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If you've ever seen the movie MirrorMask, read any of the Sandman graphic novels, or huddled over his mythic novels, American Gods or Anansi Boys, you know how smart, dark and funny Neil Gaiman is. If you haven't, well...get on it! Check out his prolifia (did I just make that word up?) at http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/

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Did you dig A Great and Terrible Beauty? How's about Rebel Angels? Well, then you must just adore Libba Bray and all her works. Click on http://libba-bray.livejournal.com/ to see what goes on in her mind.

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If you've got the skinny on any author pages or weird and wonderful websites, do share! I'll add them onto this entry. Maybe one day, dream of dreams, we might have some authors hitting our site!

The Seven Most Common Teen Dreams...and What They Mean

The Book of Lists for Teens, written by Sandra&Harry Choron, cites these following themes as the most common among teen dreamers:

1. Banana Cream Pie
(Oops. I was reading from another list.)

1(really, this time). Being Naked. This dream represents feelings of being exposed in some embarrassing way, not the fear that you will forget to wear clothes one day. Finding yourself naked in a classroom may mean you aren't prepared for a test or a project at school.

2. Falling. You may be afraid of failing at something. Or, it could mean that you can't keep up with your friends, or that you don't measure up. Falling dreams can also mean that you have a sense of failure about a specific question.

3. Teeth Falling Out. These dreams can mean that you're concerned about your appearance and that gorgeous smile of yours. But it can also mean that you're worried about what your friends and teachers think of you.

4. Taking an Exam. If you dream that you can’t complete an exam in the allowed time, if you are late for an exam, or if your pencil keeps breaking during a test, you are feeling insecure and worried about letting others down.

5. Being Chased. If you are running away, hiding, or trying to outwit your pursuer, it may mean that your afraid to deal with fears, stress, or problems in your life. Instead of confronting the situation, you’re avoiding it.

6. Flying. Many people have found flying dreams an exhilarating, joyful, and liberating, experience. It may mean that you are prepared and on top of a given situation or that you have gained a different viewpoint on things. You feel undefeatable and nobody can tell you what you cannot do and accomplish. You have a sense of freedom.

7. Weird Dreams that Make No Sense. If you dream, for example, that a large blue shoe is sitting next to you in a space ship made of marshmallows, your mind is probably searching for a solution to a specific problem.

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Care to Weigh in? Had any kooky dreams about, oh say, flying monkeys eating banana creme pie (which could only mean that you're worried about your future retirement in Guam) or nightmares about giant spiders grading your homework unfairly (which clearly means you should lay off the meats before bed)?

Have You Read These Top Novels of the 20th Century?

Lolita, Vladimir Nabakov
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
1984, George Orwell
Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark
A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
On the Road, JackKerouac
Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller

Slaughterhouse-five, Kurt Vonnegut

Kilgore Trout's Tombstone

Great Books for Young Guys

The Burn Journals, Brent Runyon
In 1991, fourteen-year-old Brent came home from school, doused his bathrobe in gasoline, put it on, and lit a match. He suffered third-degree burns over 85 percent of his body and spent the next year recovering in hospitals and rehab facilities. During that year of physical recovery, Runyon began to question what he;d done, undertaking the complicated journey from near-death back to high school, and from suicide back to the emotional mainstream of life.

Tales of the Otori, Lian Hearn
16-year-old Tomasu lives in a remote mountain village among the Hidden, a reclusive and spiritual people who have taught him only the ways of peace. But, unbeknownst to him, his father was a celebrated assasin and a member of the Tribe, an ancient network of families with extraordianry, preternatural skills. When Tomasu's village is pillaged, he is rescued and adopted by the mysterious Lord Otori Shigeru, who gives him a new name: Takeo. Under the tuttelage of Shigeru, Takeo learns that he, too, possesses the skill of the Tribe. And with this knowledge, he embarkes on a journey that will lead him to his own unimaginable destiny.

Winterdance, Gary Paulsen
Fueled by a passion for running dogs, Gary Paulsen entered the Iditarod--the eleven hundred and eighty mile sled-dog race through the Alaskan wilderness--in dangerous ignorance and with a fierce determination. For seventeen days, he and his team of dogs endured blinding winds, snowstorms, frostbite, dogfights, moose attacks, sleeplessness, hallucinations--and the relentless push to go on. Winterdance is the enthralling account of a "stunning wilderness journey of discovery and transformation"(Chicago Tribune), lived and told by "the best author of man-against-nature adventures writing today" (Publisher's Weekly).

47, Walter Mosley
The story you are about to read concerns ceratin events that occured in the early days of my life. It all happened over a hundred and seventy years ago. I am no older today than I was back in the year 1832. But this is no whopper I'm telling; it is the story about my boyhood as a slave and my fated encounter with the Amazing Tall John from beyond Africa, who could read dreams, fly between galaxies, and make friends with any animal no matter how wild.

Some Great Books for Young Women

Speak, Lauri Halse Anderson

Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe. Beacause there's something she's trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she would let it, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth.

Sloppy Firsts, Megan McCafferty

When her best friend, Hope Weaver, moves away from Pineville, NJ, hyperobservant Jessica Darling is devastated. A fish out of water at school and a stranger at home, Jessica feels more lost than ever now that the only person with whom she could really communicate has gone. How is she supposed to deal with the boy- and shopping-crazy girls at school, her dad's obsession with her track meets, her mother salivating over her big sister Bethany's wedding, and her nonexistant love life?

A Great and Terrible Beauty, Libba Bray

Gemma Doyle isn't like other girls. Girls with impeccable manners, who speak when spoken to, who remember their station, and who will lie back and think of England when it's required of them. No, 16-year-old Gemma is an island unto herself, sent to the Spence Academy in London after tragedy stikes her family in India. Lonley, guilt-ridden, and prone to visons of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma finds a chilly reception. But she's not completely alone...she's been followed by a mysterious young man, who warns her to close her mind against the visions.

A Certain Slant of Light, Laura Whitcomb

In the class of the high school English teacher she's been haunting, Helen feels them: for the first time in 130 years, human eyes are looking at her. They belong to a boy, a boy who had not seemed remarkable until now. And Helen--terrified, but intrigued--is drawn to him. The fact that he is in a body and she is not presents this unlikely couple with their first challenge. But as the lovers struggle to find a way to be together, they begin to discover the secrets of their former lives and of the young people they come to possess.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Told from the odd, emotionally distant perspective of Death (circa 1942), The Book Thief is the magnetically charged story of Liesel Meminger, a German foster child, who decides to steal something back from Hitler's destructive regime. She steals stories, feathers, clouds and most important, words. She encounters a basmented Jew in hiding; an accordian-playing, soft-eyed foster father; a deceptively kind cardboard foster mother; and one yellow-haired, remarkable best friend.

Reading Questions

Q. How does having Death as narrator change the way we view the story. Would we see things in the same way if Liesel or Rudy had narrated instead?

Q. How does The Book Thief compare with other Holocaust books? Have you read The Diary of Anne Frank? What about Eli Weisel's Night? How does a ficton story compare with an autobiographical one?

Q. In the end, was it really better for Liesel to have loved and lost than not loved at all?

Q. What was your favorite part of the book? Who were the characters who most endeared themselves to you?

Debate: Clique, A-List and Gossip Girl

A recent NYT's Book Review (March 12) completely bashed the likes of Clique, The A-List, Gossip Girl and many other teen chick-lit series that deal with wealthy, amoral girls who like to party. The article was disparaging, claiming these books "scorn anyone pathetic enough not to fit in" and essentially celebrate girls being mean to eachother. However, working at M&E, I've seen how popular these books really are and know there must be redeeming factors at work within them. If you have opinions on any of these books please feel free to share!

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Quote of the Day

Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, not to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.
-Sir Francis Bacon

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