Library Love Fest

Nancy Pearl Benefit Brunch

Nancy Pearl, everyone’s favorite librarian action figure and all-around amazing booktalker is going to be the guest of honor at a fundraising brunch in Brooklyn, NY! The event is a benefit for a new show entitled Terrible Things which is about Nancy’s pre-action figure life!  The show is written by and starring her daughter, Katie Pearl. See below for more info on the benefit and the show!

You are invited to Brunch with
Nancy Pearl
Librarian, Action Figure, and Book Recommender to the World!

Saturday November 21st 11-1:30pm
   At the Packer Collegiate Institute, Brooklyn Heights, NY

   To benefit the upcoming production of
TERRIBLE THINGS
   A new performance by Katie Pearl and Lisa D’Amour
   Premiering 12/4-12/20 at Performance Space 122, NYC
  

When you join us, you will:
Feast on local eats, coffee and cocktails
Indulge in book lust and conversation with Nancy Pearl
Luxuriate in the Cathedral-esque wonderland of the historic Packer School
SNEAK-A-PEAK at Nancy's OBIE Award-winning daughter's new performance, featuring stories from Nancy's pre-action figure life!

TO GET YOUR TICKETS TO THE BENEFIT BRUNCH WITH NANCY, CLICK HERE:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/87806
 
Ticket Information:
$35 – one ticket to the benefit ($20 rate available for students, artists, and the unemployed)
$50 – one ticket to the benefit, PLUS a ticket to opening weekend of TERRIBLE THINGS
$85 (15% off!) – two tickets to the benefit, PLUS two tickets to opening weekend of TERRIBLE THINGS
$250 – two tickets to the benefit, two tickets to any night of TERRIBLE THINGS, plus a one-on-one get together with Nancy!
   

The OBIE-Award winning team of PearlDamour turns PS122 into a low-rent IMAX in their newest dance theater piece TERRIBLE THINGS. Let them take you on a T-R-I-P inside the quarks, molecules, and memories of  Katie Pearl and her Action Figure Mom.  CLICK HERE for more info on the show, or visit us at PearlDarmour.com.

Hope to see you there!
-Virginia

Katherine Hall Page Book Giveaway!

I had a terrific conversation with mystery writer Katherine Hall Page on Blog Talk Radio.  Her new book, The Body in the Sleigh just went on sale and readers are loving it. Check out the great review below:

A great conversation with Katherine Hall Page yesterday.  I read the ARC of this last month (thanks, Bobby) and as always, the best cozy mysteries of the year.  The setting provides the perfect backdrop, the mystery clever and not pat, Faith is charming and manages to balance self, children, husband, a business and still have time to help neighbors in need.  The careful attention to details, such as about raising goats, add so much to the story. Not to be missed!

Jennifer M. Winberry, Principal Librarian
Extension Services, Acquisitions, Programming
Hunterdon County Library

We’d love to hear what you think!  We’ll gladly send a complimentary copy of The Body in the Sleigh to you in exchange for a review.

Thanks!
-Virginia

AAP Spring 2010 Book Buzz

It was great seeing old friends and making new ones at last week’s AAP Book Buzz here in NYC.  The AAP Library Committee is comprised of library marketers from various publishing houses. We get together several times a year to brainstorm about different ways we can connect our authors and books to libraries.  We decided to invite librarians from the tri-state area and barrage them with book talks and sandwiches!  It worked – we all had a lot of fun and it was a great opportunity to talk about some upcoming books that have us jazzed  (there’s just never enough time to talk about them all!)

Marilyn Johnson, author of the upcoming This Book Is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All kicked off the event with a brief talk about the increasing demands on librarians to keep up with the onslaught of new technology.  This book is an homage to librarians everywhere – and it is long overdue!

If anyone is interested in a galley of This Book Is Overdue, I have a few to spare.  Send an email to me at librarylovefest at harpercollins dot com and I’ll be happy to send one to you. 

Here is a list of the books I had presented.  Clicking on each title will bring you to its page in our online catalog.  Note: a few of these titles won't hit our catalogs until the beginning of November, so we've put them at the end of the list.  Happy reading!

-Virginia

Making Toast by Roger Rosenblatt

Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich

The Bricklayer by Noah Boyd

31 Bond Street by Ellen Horan

Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Brava, Valentine by Adriana Trigiani

The Body in the Sleigh

The Body in the Sleigh, Katherine Hall Page’s 18th book in the Faith Fairchild mystery series goes on sale today.

This is a terrific page-turner that’ll keep you in your seat. Aside from the terrific plot, beautiful setting, wonderful characters and yummy easy-to-make recipes, the book has one more thing going for it:

It’s dedicated to librarians.

Read Katherine’s love letter to librarians which appears at the back of The Body in the Sleigh as well as on her website.  It’s heartfelt and beautiful.

If you’d like to write a review of this book, send us an email at librarylovefest dot harpercollins dot com and we’ll send you a copy.  I’ll be speaking with the author later today (Tuesday, October 27th at 3:00pm EST) on  Blog Talk Radio.  Write or call in with a question for Katherine, and be sure to register before the show starts.

Hope you can listen in. Thanks!

-Virginia

This Book is Overdue!

Are librarians irrelevant in the age of Google? Hell no. After years hanging out with a wide variety of librarians, Marilyn Johnson, author of the upcoming THIS BOOK IS OVERDUE!  How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All is convinced that the profession is more vital than ever.  We need libraries that embrace books and bytes -- that preserve the best of the past and help us keep pace with technology --and we need all you smart, savvy, connected librarians to help us organize and navigate them. Johnson, author of the entertaining and award-winning The Dead Beat, has written a lively and informative book about librarians in the digital age and talks about some of the (wildly) creative librarians she found who are meeting its challenges. 
 
We’re thrilled to have this book on our list.  Take a look at the first chapter and tell us what you think.  We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks!

-Virginia

Manhood for Amateurs

A couple of weeks ago, I was determined to see Michael Chabon during the New York leg of his book tour for Manhood for Amateurs.  (As you can see here and here, I'm a huge fan of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh.)  So it wasn't a big deal for me to hop on the 2/3 and make the hour-long trek into the deep reaches of Brooklyn.  Chabon gave a wonderful talk on non-fiction writing, reading a few essays from Manhood for Amateurs, which manages to be insightful, wonderfully written, and truly poignant.  He took questions from the audience at the tail-end of the event, and even mentioned an idea he has for a book based on the life of Queen's Freddie Mercury.  (Fingers crossed!)

The talk is part of a Brooklyn Public Library series curated by editor Matt Weiland on the Art of Non-Fiction.  The next event, this Thursday night, features Padgett Powell, author of The Interrogative Mood.  For more info on the series, click here.  And while you're at it, be sure to browse inside Manhood for Amateurs.  You can also read one of the essays here courtesy of the New York Review of Books. 

-Kayleigh  

Highest Duty, Amazing Video

By now just about everyone has seen the surreal footage of the US Airways plane that glided into the icy waters of the Hudson River in New York City last January in an emergency landing.   We saw the passengers standing on the wings of the plane – knee deep in water – waiting to be pulled into the boats that immediately converged on the scene.  It’s hard not to imagine what it must’ve been like for the passengers on that plane.   Harder still would be to imagine what it was like to be the man at the controls of that plane.

In his new book Highest Duty, Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger, the pilot of US Airways flight 1549, details not only the events of that unforgettable day, but he also reveals the inner workings of his life: where he comes from, his military background, and the important people, places, and events that have shaped him. Sully has a very strong work ethic and has always pushed himself to achieve excellence in every endeavor.

FYI…a few weeks after the crash, Sully discovered that he’d lost a library book about professional ethics, Just Culture: Balancing Safety and Accountability, in the downed plane’s cargo hold. When he called the library to notify them, they waived the usual fees. Mayor Michael Bloomberg replaced the book when he gave Sully the Key to the City in a New York ceremony.  Check out this great video and fasten your seatbelts.  This is quite the story…

-Virginia

The Machine

Attention all you sports fans!  Take a nostalgic trip down memory lane with this exciting book by Joe Posnanski.  The Machine, on sale now takes a look at the 1975 Cincinnati Reds.  Considered one of the greatest teams in baseball history, The Machine explores everything the team went through to gain that status...the highs, the lows, the fights and the victories.  

Also, check out this great review from Brad Allen, Adult Services Supervisor for the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library.  Here is the link:   http://tinyurl.com/yjzkc8q

Many thanks to Brad and everyone at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library!   I hope The Machine brings back fond memories of yesteryear or gives you the motivation to cheer on your favorite team.

Enjoy,

-Bobby
(GO YANKEES!)

Classic Novels We Love to Hate

Over on Roaring I've been getting some hilarious responses to my last post on the classic novels we love to hate.  You don't have to be in your twenties to loathe The Great Gatsby or despise Ethan Frome, so I'm opening it up to all ages.  What's the classic novel you absolutely can't stand? Head on over and leave a comment-I'm posting the best ones on Monday!

-Kayleigh

Fridays are for matching?

Here on the 23rd floor, we seem to have an odd habit of dressing alike.  Yesterday, for instance, all of us were wearing a combination of grey and black.  From left to right: Diane, Bobby, Virginia, me, and Lauren...

Then today, we arrived in our casual Friday finest...and realized we were all wearing blue shirts with jeans.  We're all individuals here, and we have very different taste (especially in books)...yet our clothing has become syncronized.  What do you think? Weird enough to make the X Files? Could it be something in the water cooler?

Happy Friday!

-Kayleigh