New Year Book Drops at Neighbor LFLs!

We sifted and sorted our stock after the holidays and took three huge bags around the neighborhood to fill other libraries. 

Pictured are just a few of the ones we visited:

Can't get over that repurposed folding school desk/seat and the one with the hobbit door! Love seeing our neighbors LFLs!

Stay warm and welcome 2015 with some hot new reads!

We hope you had a FANTASTIC New Year! The cold snap that's been keeping us all locked up indoors is here for at least another week. Now is an excellent time to swing by (but bundle up first!) and come pick out a new book to keep you warm.

We've stocked the Library of Justice with some fresh selections to get you through the deep freeze. And if Santa brought you something you'd like to trade in---or you've got some gem you've been wanting to share with others---bring it over. We've made room!

Love and Marriage

Early October is a special time for the Librarian of Justice and me...it is the time of year when we celebrate our wedding anniversary. We remember that beautiful fall day...surrounded by family and friends...happily proclaiming our love for and commitment to one another. All very sappy and romantic and ridiculous...and we love it! :)

So to celebrate our special day, the library is now stocked with books focused on relationships, love and marriage. Relationships between witches and vampires...relationships that had to be hidden because of the time and context in which they existed..."relationships" that were arranged and undesired...relationships that were steamy and fleeting...interracial relationships...fairy tale relationships. We've got it all! Right here in our Little Free Library.

So stop by, pick out a book, and enjoy marveling at shapes and sizes in which relationships exist.

Happy reading, Readers!

SCI-tember: FINAL WEEK!

There's a batch of new science and science fiction books  and comics in the library. We've saved some of the best for last--including space opera sagas, cyberpunk thrillers, steampunk super teams, and turn-of-the-century interplanetary adventures!

Be sure to stop by and check 'em out!

More Game of Thrones!

We've stocked three more paperbacks from George R.R. Martin's Fire and Ice series! We didn't even have to pay the "Iron Price" to get them. Fans of HBO's Game of Thrones will want to check 'em out and see what they've been missing!

Now in stock:

• Clash of Kings
• Storm of Swords
• Feast of Crows

Valentine's Day Reader Treats!

Wither yon Lois, Clark? Thou art a cad!

Scandalous!

Happy Valentine's Day! Or happy spend-some-quiet-time-with-a-book-or-comic day! We slipped a couple of romance-y themed treats into the library this morning. Young Romance from DC Comics is a revival from the days of yore and yesteryear, published just for the occasion. It's chock full 'o sweet superhero stories--including one with Superman and Wonder Woman--plus a few punch-out Valentines to woo your own cuddly caped crusader. (Too much?) It's recommended for hormonal teens and starry-eyed lovers.

We're also really excited to have a copy of New York Times bestselling novel A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. It's not your usual tawdry romance between a vampire and the witches who love them. It's much, much better than that! (Emily swears by it.) It's romantical, yet keeping with our Fantasy February theme. We know what you're thinking--that this is like that other notoriously cringe-worthy, vampires in love book series. Don't go there--this one really is well written. We're not judging. (But we do have standards!)

Stop by the Library of Justice and check 'em out!

It's FANTASY FEBRUARY!

Hey, didn't Punxsutawney Phil give us all a reprieve last weekend when he failed to spy his shadow? How is it that barely a week later we're getting reports of another big snowfall headed our way? Well this seems like the perfect opportunity to escape reality--so we're declaring it FANTASY FEBRUARY!

Earlier today we did a complete swap out of the Library of Justice and filled it with lots of fantasy books and comics--from ancient myths to modern fairy tales and everything in between. We've got a few more we'll drop in over the course of the month.

Here's a quick glance:

Princess Bride, Lightning Thief, King Arthur--there's plenty of classic stories to go around! One of Emily's favorites, The Historian, is also included for the more discerning reader. We've got even more fantasy comics for kids, tweens, and teens stocked as well--stay tuned for a separate post on those.

Finally, we have a request dear Library of Justice patrons: we want you to drop off a fantasy book you'd like to share in the library! We left some extra space this time around for donation, so if you've got something good, share it with your friends and neighbors.

Happy Fantasy February and good reading!

Fend off the COLD with these stories!

This past weekend the temperature dipped to -11 in our neck of the woods. It hasn't gone much higher but it's slooooowly starting to recover. Back to double digits anyway. So we dug up three books that take place in HOT climes to help warm up your reading this week: Life of Pi, Prince of Persia, and DUNE!

....can't get much warmer than DUNE.

Seasons Greetings and Salutations!

We've seen an increase in traffic to this site and our second home on Facebook, thanks to some promotion on the official Little Free Library Facebook page--so WELCOME! ...to our new visitors!

Feel free to poke around the site and learn more about out pint-sized hall of (literary) heroes and how it came to be.

It's been a busy month of December for us. Over the last week or so we've done a complete rotation of the books and comics in the library. We received a few new donations that have now been stamped and added this past weekend. Just about everything in the library now is fresh--save for the recent movie novels we featured in the From Books to Screen series (they're in there also).

Other new additions include:

Crime and mystery books, graphic novels, and comics--for a variety of ages. Classic Nancy Drew books! And a comic version of Nancy's newer adventures too.

By way of a generous donor we now have some excellent Batman: Shadow of the Bat comics following the caped crusader through his adventures as the "World's Greatest Detective" (sorry Sherlock!) as takes on the inmates at Arkham Asylum.

And I'm SUPER excited about Incognito, a great couple of graphic novels by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Not your typical superhero-fare, they're steeped in intrigue have a classic pulp noir look and feel to them (they're for grown ups, FYI).

If novels are more your thing, we have a copy of the 1934 detective classic The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammet!

We also acquired two editions of globe-trotting reporter/detective Tintin. While relatively unknown in the US before his big film debut last year, Tintin has been a cherished character in Europe for decades and more well-known around the world. Each book has three classic Tintin adventures and are great for kids of all ages.

Finally, we'd like to pay tribute to the seasonal help we hired to provide customer service and spread some holiday cheer. He was all smiles when he began:

...but I'm afraid we worked the chap a bit too hard:

The holidays can be tough on all of us I guess.

Before he left us, he put together a wonderful selection of Christmas titles to get you in the spirit of the season. And there are many more books, comics, and graphic novels to check out as well!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and have a fantastic New Year!

P.S. You can always find us on this site by going to www.libraryofjustice.org!

From Books to Screen: On The Road!

You'll have to forgive the lateness of this post. We decorated the Library today with Christmas lights and neglected to get the next selection in our Books to Screen series in there until just now!

Tonight we added On the Road by Jack Kerouac, the "Bible of Beat Generation" as the book's back states. On the Road is a quasi-fictionalized account of Kerouac's own travels across the US after World War II. It's often considered a major influence on the free love movement that followed a decade later.

The book was thought for years to be unfilmable in part due to it's unconventional (long and winding) structure. After passing hands from filmmaker to filmmaker since the 60s (including an attempt by Francis Ford Coppola) the film version of Road is finally on it's way to theaters this month. Have a look at the trailer:



On The Road is now parked snugly in the Library of Justice for you to enjoy!

From Books to Screen: The Hobbit!

One of my favorite books, having read it in 5th grade: The Hobbit! This story features the exploits of Bilbo Baggins (Frodo's uncle) many years before the events in the Lord of the Rings. It's a bit more of a rollicking epic than the Rings books which were heavy both in plot and tone. J.R.R. Tolkien's first tale is much lighter affair, featuring a dozen or so dwarves with rhyming names, a bunch of nasty beasts to fight, and some old favorites like Gandalf the wizard and Gollum.

This tale of little folk on a grand adventure sends Bilbo, a hobbit of the Shire, reluctantly on an epic quest (as hired by his pal Gandalf) with a his dwarf companions. They're off to reclaim a treasure hoarded by the dragon Smaug beneath the bowels of the Misty Mountain.

Though there is only a single book for The Hobbit, director Peter Jackson has said there will be three films, which will include some additional material Tolkien had written afterwards. Here's the trailer for the first film set to premiere mid-December:



Now's the time to come pick up the story and see how it fares against Jackson's on-screen vision. If you hurry to the pick it up now, you could be "there and back again" before it hits theaters!

A brand new copy of The Hobbit is waiting for you in the Library of Justice!

From Books to Screen: Life of Pi

NOW! IN THEATERS! The Life of Pi, based on the book by Yann Martel, is the holiday season movie that everyone is talking about! Once thought to be "virtually unfilmable" the movie is now being lauded for the visually stunning manner in which it tells this dramatic tale. From the back cover:

Pi Patel, a God-loving boy and the son of a zookeeper, has a fervent love of stories and practices not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. When Pi is sixteen, his family and their zoo animals emigrate from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship. Alas, the ship sinks--and Pi finds himself in a lifeboat, his only  companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi. Can Pi and the tiger find their way to land? Can Pi's fear, knowledge, and cunning keep him alive until they do?

This beloved story can now be enjoyed in your own imagination AND on the silver screen! Which do you think you'd enjoy more? Can movies ever really capture the essence of a book? Check out The Life of Pi from the Library of Justice and then make your way to the theater to see director Ang Lee's interpretation:

From Books to Screen: Master And Commander!

Starting today through the next few days we'll be featuring books that went on to make it big in Hollywood! We're kicking it off with Patrick O'Brian's Master And Commander, the first in a series of novels following the seafaring exploits of Captain Jack Aubrey of the British Navy. O'Brian's stories are known for their rigorous historical accuracy when it comes to crafting the 19th century. From the back cover:

This, the first in the splendid series of Jack Aubrey novels, establishes the friendship between Captain Aubrey, R. N., and Stephen Maturin, ships surgeon and intelligence agent, against the thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. Details of life aboard a man-of-war in Nelson's navy are faultlessly rendered: the conversational idiom of the officers in the ward room and the men on the lower deck, the food, the floggings, the mysteries of the wind and the rigging, and the roar of broadsides as the great ships close in battle.

The novel (and some of its sequels) later served as the basis for the film version staring Russel Crowe (which, incidentally, is one of my favorite movies!). Here's a look at the trailer:

So sail on over and check out the novel that started it all--Master And Commander is now available in the Library of Justice!

JUST ADDED: New Superhero books and comics!

The Library of Justice received not one, but TWO packages packed with super-powered donations recently....

The first is a fresh batch of classic comics from Eric in Salina, Kansas, which included single issues of Batman: Shadow of the Bat, Iron Man, Sword of the Atom, Richie Rich, and others:

The second delivery comes from Jeny in Houston, Texas, who also is a librarian (like, with a real Masters in Library Sciences and everything!) and sent these library-quality hardcover DC superheroes books for young ones:

Click images to enlarge 

Thanks for the generous donations--you guys are real heroes of literacy! Several of these are now available in the Library of Justice. Single issues on the secret comic shelf, hard-backs on the main shelf.

Enjoy!

JUST ADDED: Halloween books!

The Library of Justice is HAUNTED! From R.L. Stein to Frankenstein: new books were just conjured up to get you into the supernatural spirit for Halloween. We've got books for all age groups:

Little Kids:

• Curious George Goes to a Costume Party
• Max & Ruby: Happy Halloween
• Toy Story Step Into Reading: A Spooky Adventure (level 2)
• Scooby-Doo Readers: The Haunted Halloween Party (level 2)

Older Kids:

Goosebumps! by R. L. Stine:

• The Barking Ghost
• Say Cheese And Die!
• Vampire Breath
• A Shocker on Shock Street
• Don't Go to Sleep

• Nine Witch Tales by Abby Kedabra 
• The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket

Young Adults & Grown-ups:

 Bram Stoker's DRACULA! A graphic novel version as well!

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, a junior reader version, and a graphic novel!

The Frankenstein junior reader is part of a series that includes:

•  The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stephenson
• The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

More scary stories to come!

Book Review: Merit Badges by Kevin Fenton

TITLE: Merit Badges
(Currently available in the Library of Justice!! As of 10/21/12!) 

AUTHOR: Kevin Fenton

STARS: ***** (5)

SUMMARY:
From Goodreads:

"Follow four friends as they move from The Brady Bunch to Seinfeld, from junior high to middle management. There is Quint, whose rebellion frays into self-destruction; Slow, who struggles to become the world's first teenage father figure; Chimes, who fears losing his friends while picking up a 7-10 split; and Barb who escapes the conformity of Minnisapa only to find herself returning by dark of night. You will feel as if you've always lived in Minnisapa, Minnesota. And you will never underestimate nice kids from the Midwest again."


REVIEW:
Kevin Fenton is a St. Paul author...and his novel takes place in fictional "Minnisapa, Minnesota." The book follows a group of friends through their lives, with each chapter telling the experiences of one of the characters, moving forward in time chronologically. By the time you get back around to a particular character, time has passed...and you have to suss out how their lives have changed in the interim.

I appreciated how the book wasn't exactly linear...that by the time the story returned to a character, he or she had grown and struggled...had experienced a whole host of life events...had moved on or hadn't. As the book (and the characters lives) progressed, you could really feel the cumulative nature of life...how events shape us as life plows on with or without us.

The characters in the book reminded me of people I've known, and I found myself thinking "I wonder if that is what so-and-so's life felt like?" It's a book that made me feel tied to the characters very quickly, and I could never put the book down for long, because I wanted to know how everyone's life turned out. It was a wonderful blend of promise and heartache...and our ability to move forward with purpose or languish in familiarity.

Overall, a funny, touching, soulful examination of the lives of a group of friends. Particularly fun to read because of the local setting and tone. A quick read...a good book for those times when you're looking for a new read but aren't quite ready to settle down with a huge story.

I do believe you'll enjoy Merit Badges!