NOT-SO-LIGHT SUMMER READING

Have you had enough of the "light summer reading" lists you see in every magazine and blog you read?  Are you ready for something with a little more meat on it's bones?  Something that will add a few more wrinkles to your laid back, summertime brain? MPL's got just the thing for you:

The Hidden Reality by Brian Greene (with description, links, and video from Knopf Publishers)

From the best-selling author of The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos comes his most expansive and accessible book to date—a book that takes on the grandest question: Is ours the only universe?
There was a time when “universe” meant all there is. Everything. Yet, in recent years discoveries in physics and cosmology have led a number of scientists to conclude that our universe may be one among many. With crystal-clear prose and inspired use of analogy, Brian Greene shows how a range of different “multiverse” proposals emerges from theories developed to explain the most refined observations of both subatomic particles and the dark depths of space: a multiverse in which you have an infinite number of doppelgängers, each reading this sentence in a distant universe; a multiverse comprising a vast ocean of bubble universes, of which ours is but one; a multiverse that endlessly cycles through time, or one that might be hovering millimeters away yet remains invisible; another in which every possibility allowed by quantum physics is brought to life. Or, perhaps strangest of all, a multiverse made purely of math.
Greene, one of our foremost physicists and science writers, takes us on a captivating exploration of these parallel worlds and reveals how much of reality’s true nature may be deeply hidden within them. And, with his unrivaled ability to make the most challenging of material accessible and entertaining, Greene tackles the core question: How can fundamental science progress if great swaths of reality lie beyond our reach?
Sparked by Greene’s trademark wit and precision, The Hidden Reality is at once a far-reaching survey of cutting-edge physics and a remarkable journey to the very edge of reality—a journey grounded firmly in science and limited only by our imagination.

PLACE A  HOLD ON THE LIBRARY'S COPY OF THIS TITLE


Brian Greene received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and his doctorate from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He joined the physics faculty of Cornell University in 1990, was appointed to a full professorship in 1995, and in 1996 joined Columbia University, where he is professor of physics and mathematics. He has lectured at both a general and a technical level in more than thirty countries, and on all seven continents, and is widely regarded for a number of groundbreaking discoveries in superstring theory. His first book, The Elegant Universe, was a national best seller and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His most recent book, The Fabric of the Cosmos, was also a best seller. He lives in Andes, New York, and New York City.

Four Years to Remember

ses·qui·cen·ten·ni·al/ˌseskwisenˈtenēəl (dictionary.com)

We study it in school. We visit the memorials and battlefields. We reenact it. The Civil War in America was a seminal turning point in America's history. This year in April we marked the sesquicentennial of the beginning of the Civil War, the shots fired on Fort Sumpter in Charleston harbor. What else can we learn from 1861?


In 1861, the United States of America (Union) instituted the first income tax. The Revenue Act of 1861 imposed a three percent tax on incomes over eight hundred dollars. Designed to help fund the expenses of the war, it was a flat rate tax. This was repealed in 1862 and replaced by a progressive rate tax which was to terminate in 1866. Obviously, 1866 was not the end of the income tax debate in America. For more information on this subject, check out The Great Tax Wars: Lincoln to Wilson by Steven Weisman (336.242 Weisman).

OTHER EVENTS AND ITEMS OF INTEREST IN 1861-The Pony Express, which began in April of 1860, ended in October of 1861 when the Pacific Telegraph line was completed.
Serfdom was abolished in Russia.
Louis Pasteur begins working on the germ theory of disease, eventually leading to the process of pasteurization.
The Gatlin Gun, a hand-cranked machine gun, is invented. (The idea being that fewer soldiers would be needed on the battlefield.)
The kinematoscope, a precursor to the cinema, is invented.

For the next four years, throughout our nation, there will be Civil War battlefields to visit, reenactments to view, and historical events to remember. Take the time to visit our history through fact and fiction.

RECOMMENDED FICTION-
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

Gods and Generals by Jeff Shaara

The Long Roll by Mary Johnston

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks

March by Geraldine Brooks not to be confused with The March by E.L. Doctorow (also recommended)

The Starbuck Series by Bernard Cornwell

Gettysburgh Trilogy by Newt Gingrich

Note-for those of you signing up for the Adult Summer Reading program at MPL, these books are historical fiction and would account for one of your genre reads.

The Results are in...

Last month we provided a survey at MPL in conjuction with National Library Week. There were 78 responses to our survey and many of them told the same story. We are one extremely busy community.

Across the board, people who enjoy reading lament their lack of TIME. We don't have time to read due to our community commitments and our responisbility to our families. We can't read while we are busy coaching, biking, baking, golfing, gardening, quilting, shopping, spending time with our family or watching the Green Bay Packers. After all this activity, if we sit down with a book in our hands we will probably fall asleep after the first page even if it happens to be our favorite author.

How can we get more book time packed into our lives? Many of the respondants to the survey do not take advantage of the convenience offered by audio books. Audiobooks on CD can be borrowed from any of our member libraries and we can ask for titles from other libraries in Wisconsin. If you spend time in your vehicle or at the gym, a good audiobook can make your trip go much faster or your workout less painful. We also offer audiobooks through the Overdrive database. These audiobooks can be downloaded onto devices such as an MP3 player, phone, or eReader. It is then a simple matter to listen to a book while doing housework, walking, or cooking. Also, most eReader Devices will work with our Overdrive database with the exception of the Kindle (this may change in the near future), allowing you to read or listen to books wherever you go!

If you don't want to spend time browsing our shelves, we have a variety of book lists on our catalog. Look under the link "Have You Read" and you will find a variety of book lists of different genres and prize winners. Look under the link "New Books" and you will find new books listed for the entire library system. Did you know that the MPL staff also hosts a book discussion group open to anyone the third Thursday of the month? A different staff member chooses a book and leads the discussion every month. Check out our latest selections on our website or stop at the Reference Desk for more information. Due to the variety of reading tastes in our staff, you will not be reading the same old thing every month.

Don't forget about using the resources of our library staff. These people are readers who enjoy sharing their favorites with you. Can't navigate the read-alikes in Novelist? We can help you. Want a chronological listing our your favorite author's books? We can find it for you or show you how to find it. Want a good book suggestion? That's why we're here.

Finally, here are a few tips for those of us that just want to hold a book in our hands while we get lost in it. 1) Keep a book in the car in case you are one of those people who waits in the car while other people finish their practices, shopping, or work shift. 2) Don't limit yourself to one format of a book. There are many people who read at home and then listen to the book while they're in the car. 3) Have a book set aside specifically for breaks and lunch while at work. There is no shame in reading more than one book at a time. 4) Plan to spend time reading just like you would any other leisure activity that is important to you.

Thank you to all who participated in our survey. We can't add time to your lives but we hope to add quality to your search for that next favorite book.

What can we learn from a squirrel?

Andy the Squirrel's contribution to National Library Week- If you've become our friend on Facebook, you know that we have a library mascot named Andy the Squirrel. Recently, in honor of National Library Week, Andy conducted a completely unscientific survey on the reading habits of his coworkers at the Manitowoc Public Library.


Below is a sampling of Andy's questions and our responses.

1) WHEN do you like to read?  According to Andy, 95% of the staff at the Manitowoc Public Library like to read while at work, 3% like to read and take walks (with the actual book in their hands at the same time), and 2% of respondants wanted to know why Andy always looks like he's ready for a fight. They would not answer any of Andy's questions, even when threatened.

2) WHAT do you like to read for fun and relaxation? 97% of our staffers prefer a romance paperback. (Andy is not very good at typing. I'm not sure that these results are accurate.) 1% of our staff reads Book Lust and Book Crush by Nancy Pearl (the librarian's librarian) for fun and good times.

3) WHERE do you like to read? 50% of staff like to read in the car. The convenience of audiobooks in a variety of formats has really helped with this. 48% of staff said this question was just like the first one because, obviously, they like to read while in the library. The frightened 2% had run away from Andy by this time.

4) Best book of all time: (Andy's little paws were starting to give out at this point so he only had one title typed in.) The Humanure Handbook: a guide to composting human manure by Joseph C. Jenkins. Yes, the Manitowoc Public Library does own this book and it has gone out a number times. I would guess there were other titles listed by staff (this one doesn't look like a romance to me) but Andy was exhausted from scurrying around and started to scold me when I questioned his results.

What can we take away from Andy the Squirrel's survey? In Andy's opinion:

1) Libraries are fun places to work. There are new people to help every day and unusual titles to suggest.

2) Everyone that works here likes to read and (despite what Andy will tell you) they read a variety of things, even romances.

3) Librarians that read are important. They share their passion for knowledge and their enjoyment of a good story with anyone who will listen.

4) Librarians might not know much about things like humanure, but we will be happy to help you find the answers to your questions.

Celebrate National Library week-enjoy your local library and all it has to offer. (Don't tell Andy this-but if you have a moment, you can stop by one of our service desks and take a REAL reading survey.) Thanks Andy!

E-Books for Everyone

Is your e-reader running on empty? You may love your new Nook or Kindle, but building an e-book library can be costly. The good news is there's plenty of free e-reading online, but you have to know where to look. Though libraries are becoming a good source of free, newer e-books from major publishers, you can also find lots of new, classic, and unusual titles for the taking at a variety of sites.

These sites offer downloadable e-books that do not violate copyright laws and, in most cases, are free.

These are available through the Manitowoc Public Library website. Click on the icons on the right side under Featured Resources.

OverDrive - Fiction and non-fiction titles.

NetLibrary - Popular e-books on business, legal self-help, computer science, economics, literature, and psychology.

Learning Express Library e-books - PDF e-books for exams such as SAT, GED, GRE, GMAT, Civil Service jobs, and ASVAB.

Free Downloadable E-books Sites

Digital Book Index One of the most comprehensive sources for free, downloadable and web-based e-books, DBI acts as an e-book-site search engine, dredging up links to more than 165,000 full-text e-books. Rather than downloading directly from this site, you'll be directed to another site where you can get the e-book. Tip: After searching for the title you want, click on the "Format" link to get the file or online text.

Project Gutenberg If you've ever looked for a free classic online, you've probably encountered Project Gutenberg. Founded in 1971 by a computer programmer named Michael Hart, this volunteer-supported site is the largest single source of downloadable e-books. Many of the titles are works of Western Literature in the public domain. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, for example, have been downloaded 27,510 times.

Open Library A project of those dogged archivists behind Archive.org and the Wayback Machine, this site aims to create "a web page for every book." In simple terms, it's the Wikipedia of books, a catalog of informational entries about books created by users, with links to places where you can download the e-books for free, usually through a public library or Archive.org. Tip: Check the "only show ebooks" box when searching.

Google Books & Ebookstore Launched late last year, Google's online e-bookstore lets you preview books for sale and download lots of free public domain e-books. Search for any book in the Google Books database (which also lets you search within the text of millions of books) and refine by selecting "Free Google eBooks" in the left-hand menu. Or search the eBookstore and select "Price: Free only." You'll have to get a Google account, but you'll be able to save your downloaded e-books on Google's server and access them from any computer.

ManyBooks.net This clean, easy-to-navigate site contains more than 29,000 free downloadable e-books in multiple formats. Most of the books are public-domain texts culled from Project Gutenberg, but ManyBooks.net's proprietor, Matthew McClintock, is adding more all the time (follow his updates on Twitter). For more recent e-books, browse the Post-1930 category. The site also features user ratings and recommendations.

Bookyards.com Bookyards says they are the "library to the world" and with their selection, one would certainly believe it. They have over 16,000 books, 800,000 ebooks, and 384 videos. There are 32,000 ebook links as well. These are all in different categories and they've added ten new categories such as Literature, War, and Games. This is a relatively easy to navigate website, with plenty of free ebooks to download.

Free-Ebooks.net In this eye-catching, user-friendly repository of current and older books, you'll find self-published e-books on modern subjects -- like How to Make Money on eBay and 21st Century Time Management for Busy Managers – rubbing virtual covers with classic works by the likes of Darwin, Twain, and Rousseau. Users of this site may also publish reviews and "like" and "dislike" books.

DrScavanaugh The good doctor who runs this site provides a massive list of free e-book libraries. You can't download from here, and it's not search-friendly, but it's a good jumping-off point for browsing the world of free e-books.

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books offers a small selection of titles from an academic library

Inkmesh is a search engine that searches more than thirty online sources for free e-books. You can search by genre, author, title and by type of e-reader.

Planet Ebook There are 61 free ebooks on Planet Ebook, and they are all classics. This is a great site for War and Peace or getting through some Emily Bronte. The site is laid out in a wordpress blogger type atmosphere and has all its books listed in a single list form, which is linked to the download. It is very simple and to the point. This is a site to download free pdf ebooks direct to your reader.

The Internet Archive's 1.8 million books now available as free Kindle Books – Most are now in MobiPocket/Kindle format. Choose MOBI from the download links on the upper left side of the book page (just below the book cover/image).

http://ireaderreview.com/2009/08/17/40-free-books-in-the-kindle-store/ This 'Free Kindle Books' post lists Every Single NEW Free Book in the Kindle Store.

Publisher Sites Featuring Free E-books

Harlequin – Romance

Baen –publisher of science fiction and fantasy offers number of free downloads that are compatible with the Kindle.

Pay Sites Worth Checking Out Powell's Books – Portland's famed bookseller now offers e-books. Munsey's -- A great source for rare and hard-to-find items, particularly pulp fiction, with many items for free and some for as cheap as $1. FictionWise – Owned by Barnes & Noble. EbookMall – One of the largest e-book retailers. Wowio – A pay site that offers some free graphic novels. FeedBooks – A pay site with links to some free books by new authors as well as some high-quality public domain e-books.

Sites to Share books:

Lendle Me The easiest, fastest, fairest, and best way to lend and borrow Kindle™ books.

Book Lending Kindle lending is a feature launched by Amazon on December 30, 2010. Any Kindle book that has lending enabled can be loaned by one Kindle user to another for 14 days.

Blogs devoted to e-book and e-reader topics:

The Digital Reader is a blog devoted to news, reviews, and opinions on everything e-book (www.the-digital-reader.com)

Ebookanoid reviews e-readers, e-books and websites devoted to them (www.ebookanoid.com)

Submitted by uber-computer genius Margie V., MPL IT.

Choose a Book!  In honor of National Library Week (April 10-16^th) we will be hosting our first-ever FACEBOOK FAN BOOK DISCUSSION! But first we need to vote on which book to read. 

Your choices are:

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (192 pgs)
In this first book, A Wizard of Earthsea readers will witness Sparrowhawk's moving rite of passage--when he discovers his true name and becomes a young man. Great challenges await Sparrowhawk, including an almost deadly battle with a sinister creature, a monster that may be his own shadow.

The Thief and the Dogs by Naguib Mahfouz (160 pgs)
Spanning the wealthy suburbs and crowded slums of Cairo, this thrilling crime story combines stream of consciousness technique with the hard-boiled style of detective fiction to create a harrowing account of crime and punishment.

Old School by Tobias Wolff (195 pgs)Set in a New England prep school in the early 1960s, the novel imagines a final, pastoral moment before the explosion of the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the suicide of Ernest Hemingway.

Cast your vote by commenting on our Facebook Page post. 

The winning title will be announced on April 11^th and discussion participants will then be able to pick a copy of the book up at the Manitowoc Public Library.

Our online discussion will be held during the last week of April.  

Become a Fan of Manitowoc Public Library on Facebook!

American Tapas

History is a popular browsing area in the library. However, a 751 page biography of John Adams by David McCullough or a 1,029 page biography of Adolf Hitler by Ian Kershaw can be overwhelming. No need to leave the 900's, look for the authors whose books contain little history "appetizers".

Kenneth Davis has long been known for his Don't Know Much About... series. These books are written in a question and answer format and usually focus on one historical era or major event. This format allows the reader to either search the book for a topic or read it straight through. His two most recent books, America's Hidden History and A Nation Rising concentrate on exposing the truth behind famous and infamous people and events in American history. They could be described as "myth-busting" books for the history lover.

Another series (written by several different authors) is the Politically Incorrect Guides. This series targets social issues (The Politically Incorrect Guide to Women, Sex, and Feminism) and history. With titles such as The Politically Incorrect Guide to the South: and why it will rise again, the history lesson is often delivered from an unfamiliar point of view. There are further reading suggestions listed throughout the books along with quotes and little nuggets of information that you're "not supposed to know". More fun than a text book, this series is a little bit like going on a historical treasure hunt.

If you've ever wondered why Rhode Island is tiny and Texas is enormous, books like Mark Stein's How the States Got Their Shapes will make it clear. One of the best aspects of this title is that it briefly explains the history and geography of the different boundaries assigned to each state and it provides a cross-reference to the other boundary disputes which affected them. For example, Michigan acquired the Upper Peninsula after a border dispute with the state of Ohio. Wisconsin went through several years of separation anxiety as it was passed from one territory to another. Gerrymandering (and $2,000 in gold) changed the borders of Idaho forever. There is a plethora of information about each state packed into a few pages.

Looking for more? Check out J. Stephen Lang's Big Book of American Trivia, James Noles' A Pocketful of History, Thomas Woods' 33 Questions about American History You're not Supposed to Ask or American History Revised by Seymour Morris.