Coming soon - MP3/iPod-compatible downloadable audiobooks

Those of you who haven't been able to download audiobooks from the Greater Digital Phoenix Library to your iPod will be happy to know that starting September 2, we will have a collection of MP3 audiobooks that you will be able to download to any MP3 player, including iPods, iPhones, and iPod Touch!

Please note that the new checkout period for ALL formats of our downloadable AUDIOBOOKS will be two weeks, in order to have quicker turnarounds and shorter wait periods. All other items will continue to have a 21 day checkout.

The following types of materials can be checked out and downloaded from the Greater Digital Phoenix Library:

• eBooks in the Adobe® Reader®/Adobe Digital Editions PDF format (eBooks optimized for on-screen reading)
• eBooks in the Mobipocket Reader format (eBooks optimized for on-screen reading & transfer to an array of portable devices)
• WMA Audiobooks in the OverDrive Media Console™ format
• Music in the OverDrive Media Console™ format
• Video in the OverDrive Media Console™ format (note that OverDrive eFlicks is supported as a high-speed Internet-only product)
• (Starting September 2) MP3 audiobooks
  

To access digital materials at Greater Digital Phoenix Library, you will need:

• A valid library card and PIN
  
• Access to the Internet
• Free software for the computer and/or device on which you wish to use the material you download from this site

Poll Workers Needed!

The 2008 elections are coming up, and the Arizona Secretary of State is needing Poll Workers. Some of the training is happening at the Downtown Chandler Library, in fact. If you're interested in doing your civic duty and getting paid for it, go to the Secretary of State's website, or call 1-877-The Vote. Deadline to apply is October 17, if you're interested in working the General Election.

Brideshead Revisited

While the cinematic adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s classic novel, Brideshead Revisited definitely lives up to the critics' acclaim, it is not recommended for a movie viewer who finds things like bisexual relationships offensive. Yet if you can get past this, you are in for a marvelous cinematic experience.
The acting, directing, screen -play, and thought provoking subject matter will keep you thinking about this movie for some time. You may need patience as your Yankee ear tunes in to the whispering upper-class British accents, but the intense acting – especially by Patrick Malahide ( who plays an artistic Oxford student thrown into complicated upper class sexual intrigues) - makes it worth your effort. So if you like emotional acting, sociological messages, some fantastic directing by Julian Jarrold, and are not easily morally offended, Brideshead Revisited is a must see and a movie you won’t forget!

Best kept secrets at your library

Here are a few FREE things we offer to the public that you might not realize we have:
-FAX MACHINES at all libraries. You may send a fax anywhere in the U.S. (no receiving)
-SCANNERS at all libraries.
-a TYPEWRITER at the Downtown Library.
-MAVIS BEACON TEACHES TYPING program on a few computers at the Downtown Library and a subscription to TYPINGMASTER ONLINE, which you may access with your library card and PIN.
-Back issues of most MAGAZINES AVAILABLE FOR CHECKOUT

Anything you've been pleasantly surprised to discover at the library?

The Painter of Battles by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

War photographer Andrés Faulques has retired to a seaside village to begin the painting of a mural, a collage of battle scenes both historical and modern. Haunted by the atrocities he has witnessed and the death of his colleague in a roadside attack, the reclusive artist is surprised by a visitor, a vaguely familiar man who claims to know him. The visitor is a former Croatian soldier whose photo Faulques took in the aftermath of a devastating battle – a seconds-long shutter click that Faulques had long forgotten – but his family was murdered and his life destroyed as a result of the publication of the photo. He has tracked down Faulques to make the photographer understand how that instant changed his life, and to seek his revenge by killing Faulques.

The Painter of Battles is both a story of suspense and a meditation on the nature of violence, responsibility, and the balance between fate and choice. Pérez-Reverte writes with beautiful language, dense philosophy, and disturbing images of modern war and human nature. The author worked as a war correspondent before achieving success as a novelist. His other works include The Queen of the South, the saga of a Mexican woman who becomes the leader of an international drug cartel; the Captain Alatriste novels, a historical fiction series about a seventeenth-century swordsman; and the literary mystery The Club Dumas, parts of which were adapted into the film The Ninth Gate. - Michelle

New (to us) Travel Literature

Ganga : a journey down the Ganges River -Crandall Hollick, Julian.
"Combining travelogue, science, and history, Ganga is a fascinating portrait of a river and a culture. It will show you India as you have never imagined it."

The geography of bliss : one grump's search for the happiest places in the world
-Weiner, Eric
"Part foreign affairs discourse, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide, "The Geography of Bliss" takes the reader from America to Iceland to India in search of happiness, or, in the crabby authors case, moments of 'un-unhappiness.'"

Narrow dog to Carcassonne-Darlington, Terry
"It was absurd. It was foolhardy. And it was glorious. When they retired, Terry Darlington and his somewhat saner wife Monica-together with their dog, a whippet named Jim-chucked their earthbound life and set out in an utterly unseaworthy sixty-foot canal narrowboat across the notoriously treacherous English Channel and down to the South of France."

A rotten person travels the Caribbean-Buslik, Gary
"Each chapter of this often hilarious and sometimes poignant travelogue recounts another island-hopping, culture-clashing crisis that pits the homesick author against falling coconuts, hospitals that remove wrong organs, insects as big and dangerous as stealth bombers, ticket agents that put him on hold for hours, mysteriously calculated currency exchanges, over-proofed rum, livestock, singing Rastafarians, garbage-bin sex, peanut-crazed children, Idi Amin, flesh-eating monkeys, dentists, cricket, steel drum bands, and the French. "

Queen of the road : the true tale of 47 states, 22,000 miles, 200 shoes, 2 cats, 1 poodle, a husband, and a bus with a will of its own-Orion, Doreen
"A pampered Long Island princess hits the road in a converted bus with her wilderness-loving husband, travels the country for one year, and brings it all hilariously to life in this offbeat and romantic memoir."

Long way down : an epic journey by motorcycle from Scotland to South Africa-McGregor, Ewan, 1971-
"Eighteen countries. Five shock absorbers.Two bikers. One amazing adventure...
After their fantastic trip round the world in 2004, fellow actors and bike fanatics Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman couldn't shake the travel bug. Inspired by their UNICEF visits to Africa, they knew they had to go back and experience this extraordinary continent in more depth."

Ghost train to the Eastern star : 28,000 miles in search of the railway bazaar
-Theroux, Paul
"Thirty years after the epic journey chronicled in his classic work The Great Railway Bazaar, the world's most acclaimed travel writer re-creates his 25,000-mile journey through eastern Europe, central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, China, Japan, and Siberia."

Lois on the loose : one woman, one motorcycle, 20,000 miles across the Americas
-Pryce, Lois
"Lois was working at the BBC in London, firmly set on the career track. But unbeknownst to her coworkers, she was leading a parallel life as well, that of a biker babe with an overwhelming case of wanderlust, one that couldn't be satisfied by a weekend holiday. Her days in a cubicle were numbered, and it wasn't long before she was on her bike and looking for adventure."

Ghosts of Spain : travels through Spain and its silent past-Tremlett, Giles
The appearance, more than sixty years after the Spanish Civil War, of mass graves containing victims of Franco's death squads finally broke the unwritten understanding among Spaniards that their recent, painful past was best left unexplored. Madrid-based journalist and 20-year resident Tremlett embarked on a journey around the country and through its history to discover why its people have kept silent so long, and here unveils the tinderbox of disagreements that mark the country today.

Conquering the impossible : my 12,000-mile journey around the Arctic Circle-Horn, Mike, 1966-
In August 2002, Mike Horn set out on a mission that bordered on the impossible: to travel 12,000 miles around the globe at the Arctic Circle - alone, against all prevailing winds and currents, and without motorized transportation.

Way off the road : discovering the peculiar charms of small-town America
-Geist, William
"CBS roving correspondent and author Geist offers up an amusing and expansive collection of America's quirky, strange and offbeat nooks." (Publisher's Weekly)

Dishwasher : one man's quest to wash dishes in all fifty states
-Jordan, Pete
"Dishwasher is the true story of a man on a mission: to clean dirty dishes professionally in every state in America. Part adventure, part parody, and part miraculous journey of self-discovery, it is the unforgettable account of Pete Jordan's transformation from itinerant seeker into "Dishwasher Pete"—unlikely folk hero, writer, publisher of his own cult zine, and the ultimate professional dish dog—and how he gave it all up for love. "

The soul of baseball : a road trip through Buck O'Neil's America-Posnanski, Joe
"When legendary Negro League player Buck O'Neil asked Joe Posnanski how he fell in love with baseball, the renowned sports columnist was inspired by the question. He decided to spend the 2005 baseball season touring the country with the ninety-four-year-old O'Neil in hopes of rediscovering the love that first drew them to the game. "

Land of Lincoln : adventures in Abe's America
-Ferguson, Andrew, 1956-
"Andrew Ferguson packs his bags and embarks on a journey to the heart of contemporary Lincoln Nation, where he encounters a world as funny as it is poignant, and a population as devoted as it is colorful. "

Arizona : no ordinary journey
-Churchwell, Mary Jo, 1942-
"Arizona: No Ordinary Journey" is partly a nature book, partly a Southwestern history, and, if the reader is in the right frame of mind, partly a comedy of errors. It is also a personal narrative--seven long months of living in a Saturn sedan; making and breaking camp; hiking official and unofficial trails; fly-fishing for Apache trout; and wandering around Arizona's little flyspeck towns, recording in loving and lingering detail the true spirit of the state.

Living in a foreign language : a memoir of food, wine, and love in Italy
-Tucker, Michael, 1944- From actor Michael Tucker comes this celebration of a good marriage and a careful study of the nature of home, written with an epicureans delight in detail and a gourmands appreciation for all things fine.

Mummy Movie Critics Crummy

It is this movie-goer's humble opinion that movie critics can be wrong! In fact, when it comes to the current mummy movie- The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - their comments are just plain crummy, mummy crummy! The Boston Globe says “Third time around, Mummy unravels” and The Chicago Tribune goes even further noting that you may want to “wrap linen over your eyes and nap.” For me, it was just the opposite. I found Tomb of the Dragon Emperor to be highly entertaining, fast-paced, easy to follow, extremely adventurous, and down right hilarious! If you can nap through this movie, you could nap through an earthquake! The musical score and the special effects were a stand-out, and the only fault I can muster might be the casting. Brendan Fraser is perhaps a little young to be playing the father of Luke Ford. So take the Challenge, prove the Mummy critics are crummy, see The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor! -Henry