Our What Should I Read Next? list is now available for new bestselling and notable fiction titles being published from January through April 2019. A copy is available online, or you may pick up a print copy at the adult reference or Main desks. All titles on the list are available to reserve through our catalog, some in multiple formats such as large print and audiobook. Returning favorites include an as yet untitled Spring book by David Baldacci, Lisa Gardner, Greg Iles, J.D. Robb, Lisa See, and Don Winslow. And what would an upcoming bestseller list be without at least one James Patterson book?. This quarter he has no fewer than 5 books coming out! Try Liar Liar, The Chef, The Cornwalls are Gone, The 18th Abduction, and Miracle at St. Andrews. Please keep in mind that since this list is published so far in advance, that some publication dates and titles may be subject to change.
Reading Recommendations from the Depths – Pretty Picture Books
Here’s our latest dispatch from the basement of the library. We have heard rumors that snow has recently fallen. This can’t be true can it? Obviously at this time of year the calendar says it’s Spring, so temperatures must be balmy and the spring flowers are in full bloom. We would love to smell the flowers with you, but as you know our contract prevents us from venturing upstairs to the outside world. We can only rely on our childhood memories of the outdoors.
We write today of a series of picture books from one of our favorite publishers, DK, short for Dorling Kindersley. They do publish a good number of picture books for children, as well as richly illustrated travel guides, but here we focus on their picture books series aimed at adults. DK in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution publishes a number of single volume works focusing on history, nature, science, travel and more. They tell us that in the days before Wikipedia and the Google, that there used to be printed books called encyclopedias that would tell you a little bit of facts and figures about a lot of things. That’s what these DK books are, an encyclopedic view of a topic. They don’t pretend to give you all the answers, but they do help you to broaden your knowledge of the world we live in and its history.
One of our most recent arrivals in the series is Natural Wonders of the World. In this book you can read about everything from Niagara Falls and the Everglades to the Kalahari Desert and the Siberian taiga. The total book is 438 pages long and each individual entry is a page or two long with a capsule description of the wonder in question with many National Geographic quality photographs and high quality drawings to accompany the text. This book emphasizes what a diverse natural world we reside in and illustrates not only wondrous places, but also the natural processes and phenomena that help shape the world we live in.
Another recent acquisition is Journey: An Illustrated History of Travel. We find this book to be right up our alley. Over 5,000 years of the recorded history of travel can be found in this volume. Here you can read all about the planes, trains, automobiles, boats, bicycles, balloons, stagecoaches, rocket ships and more that people have used to get from point A to point B. The earliest travelers with written records of their journeys were the Mesopotamians and the Minoans, but the Persians, Phoenicians and Polynesians were not far behind. Today, people are planning trips to asteroids and to Mars. In Journey you can also read about famous travel paths from the Northwest Passage to Route 66. Our favorite entry is the one for the “Hippie Trail.” Apparently in the 1960s lots of hippies hitchhiked their way from Europe to India to seek enlightenment. We remember that the Beatles did this to meet with the Maharishi. We think that the Beatles probably had a better travel agent than your everyday hippie.
Now a cynic or a smartypants would ask, can you cover the natural world in 438 pages, the history of travel in 440 pages, or even remarkable books in 256? Probably not, but we think having a wide knowledge of the world, natural or otherwise, is a good thing to have. That is probably what we like best about the DK/Smithsonian books. We enjoy them because to us they present reading as armchair travel. We try to travel and see and experience as much of the world as is possible, but know that we have neither the time or money to go everywhere we want. Like the National Geographic magazines of old, the DK encyclopedias can help us see the whole world from our small corner of it. They offer a nice perspective on life.
Some of the DK/Smithsonian books we have in the library are:
- Natural Wonders of the World
- Wildlife of the World
- Car: the definitive visual history of the automobile
- Civil war: a visual history
- Design: the definitive visual history
- Fashion: the definitive history of costume and style
- Journey: an illustrated history of travel
- Aircraft: the definitive visual history
- Music: the definitive visual history
- Remarkable Books
You can find others by doing a word search in our online catalog of dorling kindersley.
What Should I Read Next? Our Upcoming Bestseller List for Winter is Now Available.
Our What Should I Read Next? list is now available for new bestselling and notable fiction titles being published from January through April 2018. A copy is available online, or you may pick up a print copy at the adult reference or Main desks. All titles on the list are available to reserve through our catalog, some in multiple formats such as large print and audiobook. Returning bestselling favorites include David Baldacci, Brad Meltzer, Jojo Moyes, J.D. Robb, and Lisa Scottoline. Several of our favorites even have two books coming out this fall, namely James Patterson (1, 2), and Danielle Steel (1, 2), and Stuart Woods (1, 2). Please keep in mind that since this list is published so far in advance, that some publication dates and titles may be subject to change.
What’s All the Hoopla About?
Digital Movies, Music and More – Instantly Available – 24/7 – Free with your Library Card!
Thank you for being a loyal library cardholder of Patchogue-Medford Library! We are excited to announce hoopla digital: a new digital media service provided to you, our patron, through which you may access and enjoy over 600,000 titles, from six different formats: Movies, TV, Music Albums, eAudiobooks, eBooks, and Comics/Graphic Novels. All in one location, from your computer, tablet or Smartphone!
With hoopla, there are no hold lists, no extra apps or accounts needed or special steps to use it.
It just works!
On a mobile device, borrowed content may be temporarily downloaded and accessed offline or, in either the app or on a computer, all borrowed content may be enjoyed while connected to the internet by streaming.
Come see what all the hoopla’s about:
- To register for and enjoy hoopla digital for free with your library card, please download the hoopla digital app from your Apple or Google Play store on your mobile device. Look for the hoopla app from Midwest Tape. If you are using a computer, you may visit https://www.hoopladigital.com/ and click on the blue “GET STARTED” button. In the apps look for the “Sign Up” link.
- Once you have downloaded the app to your device(s) and/or clicked on the hoopla digital link on our website, you will be prompted to choose Patchogue-Medford Library as your home library, then to enter your your library card barcode number or username AND your library card PIN/Password. Finally you will be asked to enter an email address and create a password for the Hoopla digital service. The system will validate that you are in good standing with the library, so that you may begin to browse, borrow, and enjoy the content.
- Once you borrow a title on one device it is automatically available via all devices with the hoopla digital app and via your PC web browsers (IE 8+, Firefox 12+, Safari 5+, Chrome 19+).
- When using hoopla you will be able to begin streaming the content immediately. You can also download content to view at a later date (in case you won’t have Wi-Fi on that camping trip).
- You will be allowed to borrow 5 titles each month. On the first of every month your count will reset to 5
- Video lends for 72 hours
- Music lends for 7 days
- Audiobooks lend for 21 days
- You are able to access (view/listen to) borrowed content as often as you want during the checkout period and you can return any borrowed title whenever you want.
We really love this service. It is easy to use and provides our library patrons instant access (again, with no waiting!!) to any titles they want. As a Patchogue-Medford Library cardholder, you may borrow up to 5 titles per month.
Thanks again for your patronage and support over the years! We hope you enjoy hoopla digital and look forward to your feedback!