NEW: Literary fiction selections just added!

Fresh stock in the library! We're excited to add some great new fiction selections.

Recently, we've been cleaned out a few times--our entire stock or most of it. Just a note to remind folks to pick a favorite and leave some for others. Thank you!

New fiction in the library!

All unique and compelling in their own way.

A Reunion of Ghosts is a thoughtful story about reckoning with your family history and understanding life as your own.

Last Night in Montreal is a noir-ish thriller told in a riveting, non-linear manner.

I Married You for Happiness is the story of a woman reflecting on her marriage as she lays next to her recently deceased husband. It covers the ups and downs of a long, beautiful journey.

Christmas comes to the Library of Justice!

On this day in 1843, Charles Dickens holiday classic, A Christmas Carol was first published in novella form. It was an instant hit, and was quickly adapted for the stage the following year. We have the novella in stock now along with a graphic novel adaption--stop by and see what the Spirit of Christmas past has in store for you!

Also new to the Library of Justice are several selections from the American Girls storybook series (based on the wildly popular dolls) with a variety of Christmas and wintry themes for children.

And finally, it's a few days before Christmas (not the night before) but we found a few mice stirring in the library for your litte mice at home, including the fantasy classic Redwall by Brian Jacques and Stuart Little by E.B. White. Epic adventures from some of our favorite mouse heroes!

Good Reading!

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: 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!