Monday, October 14, 2013

Library Closed - Get info on the Affordable Care Act

All four Chandler Public Libraries will be closed on Columbus Day, Monday, October 14, for staff training. Regular hours will resume on Tuesday, October 15. (Hamilton and Basha branches open at 9:00 a.m. on October 15 and return to their regular 7:30 a.m. opening on Wednesday, October 16.)

Questions about the Affordable Care Act? As a community information resource, the library has collected information about ACA in one location. Visit the ACA page on our website for important dates, what you need to apply, and relevant websites and phone numbers.

Please note: Library staff are NOT healthcare specialists and CANNOT advise you on the healthcare plan you should choose. Please visit our ACA page for phone numbers to call if you have questions.

Monday, October 7, 2013

Book Review: Longbourn

Sarah is a brave, hardworking young woman employed by the Bennett family. When the Bingley family comes to the neighborhood AND the Bennetts hire a new footman, things begin changing in Sarah's world. And it's a world I've always been curious about...

Every time I read a Jane Austen novel, I think about what's going on in the world outside the houses and small villages the stories take place in. Austen gives you a very insular view of the world and I don't mean that in a bad way, but you just get tiny glimpses if you get any at all.

Longbourn filled in some of those gaps about the life for the other half of British society in Regency England. It could easily stand alone, and you don't have to be a fan of Pride and Prejudice to love the story here. I think it will appeal to fans of Downton Abbey or Upstairs, Downstairs and even to general historical fiction fans. - Melissa (Downtown)

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

The October LibraryReads List!


Wait...what is LibraryReads? A list of new or soon-to-be published titles selected and recommended by librarians and library staff from across the country. We've included descriptions* below and you can head to the LibraryReads website to see brief reviews submitted by librarians. We'd love to hear what you think about the titles, so if you love it or hate it be sure to let us know!

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Published: October 1, 2013

Don Tillman, professor of genetics, has never been on a second date. He is a man who can count all his friends on the fingers of one hand, whose lifelong difficulty with social rituals has convinced him that he is simply not wired for romance. So when an acquaintance informs him that he would make a "wonderful" husband, his first reaction is shock. Yet he must concede to the statistical probability that there is someone for everyone, and he embarks upon The Wife Project. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which he approaches all things, Don sets out to find the perfect partner.

Longbourn by Jo Baker
Published: October 8, 2013

In this irresistibly imagined belowstairs answer to Pride and Prejudice, the servants take center stage. Sarah, the orphaned housemaid, spends her days scrubbing the laundry, polishing the floors, and emptying the chamber pots for the Bennet household. But there is just as much romance, heartbreak, and intrigue downstairs at Longbourn as there is upstairs. When a mysterious new footman arrives, the orderly realm of the servants’ hall threatens to be completely, perhaps irrevocably, upended.

The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
Published: September 24, 2013

Growing up in Calcutta, born just fifteen months apart, Subhash and Udayan Mitra are inseparable brothers, one often mistaken for the other. But they are also opposites, with gravely different futures ahead of them. It is the 1960s, and Udayan-charismatic and impulsive-finds himself drawn to the Naxalite movement, a rebellion waged to eradicate inequity and poverty: he will give everything, risk all, for what he believes. Subhash, the dutiful son, does not share his brother's political passion; he leaves home to pursue a life of scientific research in a quiet, coastal corner of America. But when Subhash learns what happened to his brother in the lowland outside their family's home, he comes back to India, hoping to pick up the pieces of a shattered family, and to heal the wounds Udayan left behind-including those seared in the heart of his brother's wife.

Cartwheel by Jennifer duBois
Published: September 24, 2013

When Lily Hayes arrives in Buenos Aires for her semester abroad, she is enchanted by everything she encounters: the colorful buildings, the street food, the handsome, elusive man next door. Her studious roommate Katy is a bit of a bore, but Lily didn’t come to Argentina to hang out with other Americans. Five weeks later, Katy is found brutally murdered in their shared home, and Lily is the prime suspect. But who is Lily Hayes? It depends on who’s asking. As the case takes shape—revealing deceptions, secrets, and suspicious DNA—Lily appears alternately sinister and guileless through the eyes of those around her: the media, her family, the man who loves her and the man who seeks her conviction.

Hawthorn & Child by Keith Ridgway
Published: September 23, 2013

Hawthorn and Child are mid-ranking London detectives tasked with finding significance in scattered facts. They are comic ghosts - one white and gay, one black and straight - turning up repeatedly and ineffectively to haunt the scene of some catastrophe or another, appearing and disappearing along with a ghost car, a crime boss, a pickpocket, a dead race-car driver, and a pack of wolves. Mysteries are everywhere, but the biggest of all is our mysterious - and hopeless - compulsion to solve them.

The Stop: How the Fight for Good Food Transformed a Community and Inspired a Movement by Nick Saul & Andrea Curtis
Published: September 24, 2013

In 1998, when Nick Saul became executive director of The Stop, the little urban food bank was like thousands of other cramped, dreary, makeshift spaces, a last-hope refuge where desperate people could stave off hunger for one more day with a hamper full of canned salt, sugar and fat. The produce was wilted and the packaged foods were food-industry castoffs—mislabeled products and misguided experiments that no one wanted to buy. For users of the food bank, knowing that this was their best bet for a meal was a humiliating experience. Since that time, The Stop has undergone a radical reinvention. Participation has overcome embarrassment, and the isolation of poverty has been replaced with a vibrant community that uses food to build hope and skills, and to reach out to those who need a meal, a hand and a voice.

We Are Water by Wally Lamb
Published: October 22, 2013

After 27 years of marriage and three children, Anna Oh--wife, mother, outsider artist--has fallen in love with Viveca, the wealthy Manhattan art dealer who orchestrated her success. They plan to wed in the Oh family's hometown of Three Rivers in Connecticut. But the wedding provokes some very mixed reactions and opens a Pandora's Box of toxic secrets--dark and painful truths that have festered below the surface of the Ohs' lives.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Published: October 22, 2013

A young boy in New York City, Theo Decker, miraculously survives an accident that takes the life of his mother. Alone and abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by a friends family and struggles to make sense of his new life. In the years that follow, he becomes entranced by one of the few things that reminds him of his mother: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the art underworld.

The Tilted World by Tom Franklin & Beth Ann Fennelly
Published: October 1, 2013

The year is 1927. As rains swell the Mississippi, the mighty river threatens to burst its banks and engulf all in its path, including federal revenue agent Ted Ingersoll and his partner, Ham Johnson. Arriving in the tiny hamlet of Hobnob, Mississippi, to investigate the disappearance of two fellow agents on the trail of a local bootlegger, they unexpectedly find an abandoned baby boy at a crime scene.

Hunting Season: Immigration and Murder in an All-American Town by Mirta Ojito
Published: October 15, 2013

In November of 2008, Marcelo Lucero, a thirty-seven-year-old undocumented Ecuadorean immigrant, was brutally attacked and murdered by a group of teenagers as he walked the streets of Patchogue, a quiet Long Island town. The teenaged attackers were out "hunting for beaners," their slur for Latinos, and Lucero was to become another victim of the anti-immigration fever spreading in the United States. But in death, Lucero's name became a symbol of everything that was wrong with our broken immigration system: porous borders, lax law enforcement, and the rise of bigotry. With a strong commitment to telling all sides of the story, journalist Mirta Ojito unravels the engrossing narrative with objectivity and insight, providing an invaluable peephole into one of American's most pressing issues.

So...which one will you read first? If you need help placing a hold with your Chandler Public Library card, give us a call at 480-782-2800.

If you'd like more book recommendations, stay tuned to our Facebook page for our next "Book Recs" session, browse our Book Lists page, and check out the September LibraryReads list. 

*Book descriptions from the publisher.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Book Review: Take, Burn or Destroy


The year is 1794, the height of the French Revolution, and British navy commander Charles Hayden has been given two conflicting assignments: to catch a French ship hiding in the fog of the English Channel, and to meet a spy who has crucial information for the English. Hayden is torn by his own troubles: an estranged fiancee and a pair of scheming women who have bilked him out of his fortune. In his worried state of mind, he makes a error of judgment - and finds himself surrounded in a dense fog by six French warships.
Take, Burn or Destroy is the third in a series of naval adventures featuring Charles Hayden, a commander whose background - an English father and a French mother - gives him a unique perspective on this tumultuous era in history. The novel is a stand-alone volume, and enough background is given that a reader can easily pick up the series here, but to start at the beginning, check out Under Enemy Colors, which was reviewed at this post.  - Michelle (Sunset)

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

International Talk Like A Pirate Day

Arrr, matey! Are ye lookin’ fer books ‘n swashbucklin’ adventures on the high seas 'bout yer pirate hearties? Yo-ho-ho! Ye’ve come to thee right place!

Every year on September 19th, across the globe folks practice their Pirate language skills and celebrate International Talk Like A Pirate Day. We thought you might be interested in a few books to help you prepare for the big day and perhaps go on a couple of adventures on the high seas with our fictional pirate friends. There’s something for everyone in our list below!

Fer Little Wee Ones:
Fer Readin' Sprogs: 
Fer Rascally Teens:
Fer Older Landlubbers: 
Find more items by searching the catalog for Subject: Pirates. On the right-side of your browser, you can refine your search by Type of Material, Publication Date, or Literary Form (fiction, nonfiction, etc).

Want to learn to speak Pirate? 

Mango Languages – Mango is an online language-learning system that can help you learn languages like Pirate, Spanish, French, Japanese, German, and more! If you want to learn on the go, download the Mango Library app on your iPhone or Android smartphone.

Monday, September 16, 2013

Book Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

A man returns to his childhood home for a funeral, and finds himself walking down the lane to the old house with the duck pond in front. As a boy he made friends with Lettie, the girl who lived there with her mother and grandmother, and as he sits by the pond he recalls some long-forgotten memories: how he and Lettie encountered something terrifying in the fields around her house, how the boy accidentally brought it home with him, and how only Lettie and her family could free him and save his life.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane is Neil Gaiman's first book for adults in eight years, and he does what he's best at - capturing childhood fears and making them larger than life again, even as an adult mind questions whether any of these terrifying things are real. Is the duck pond really the ocean, as Lettie says it is? Is the new housekeeper human or not? Did Lettie really move to Australia, or has the middle-aged narrator forgotten what really happened to her? Gaiman's exploration of memory and fear is a gripping walk into a past we might think we've left behind us. - Michelle (Sunset)

Monday, September 9, 2013

Book Review: Fin & Lady

I loved Lady. I loved Fin. I loved Cathleen Schine's novel Fin & Lady. At the beginning of this book, we discover Fin is now an orphan. His father died when he was very young and his mother has died. The only family he has left is his eccentric, much-older sister Lady. Fin has only met her once before when he was five (he's now eleven), but he has fond memories of his time with her.

As I read, I slowly began to realize that someone close to Fin is telling the story, but it wasn't until the very end that I realized who it was. A wonderful story about family, love, and growing up in the 1960s.

If you're a fan of coming-of-age stories that give you a sense of both time and place (and memorable characters), like Cold Sassy Tree, then definitely read this book. - Melissa (Downtown)