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What’s All the Hoopla About?

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Digital Movies, Music and More – Instantly Available – 24/7 – Free with your Library Card!

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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!

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Reading Recommendations from the Depths – Installment Numero Cuatro

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We have heard that the weather will be especially nice for the last week of August 2017, with pleasant temperatures, sunshine, and low humidity. Alas, fresh air and sunlight is not in the cards for your humble correspondent down in the depths of the library, but he has discovered for you a number of clever titles that have arrived in the latest shipment of books. These five books are kind of a hodge-podge as they don’t really have much in common other than the titles struck me as fairly amusing, but they seem like they might make good reads for the closing days of summer.

 

First up is Can It & Ferment It: more than 75 satisfying small-batch canning and fermentation recipes for the whole year. Both experienced canners and rank beginners will find good advice in this book, with over 75 all-season recipes for among other things, chutneys, kimchi, and even pickles. From reading the description of this book, I have learned that canners and fermenters are sometimes at  odds with each other. Author Stephanie Thurow attempts to bring them together with advice and recipes that will work for both parties. I must confess that the only canner I really know is Chef Boyardee, but he doesn’t seem to make an appearance in this book.

What would you do if you were a former British Royal Marine who found himself adrift in life feeling bored and disillusioned? If that were me I would probably just try to watch a funny movie on TV or get an ice cream cone. However, if you were Mick Dawson you might try to get together with one of your best mates and attempt to row across the Pacific Ocean from Japan to San Francisco. Lest you think that this was a spur of the moment decision, you should know that Dawson had already twice(!) rowed across the Atlantic Ocean and had also twice made gallant, but unsuccessful, efforts to row solo across the Pacific. Dawson’s new memoir Battling the Oceans in a Rowboat tells the dramatic story of the effort Mick Dawson and his friend Chris Martin made. Did they make it? We’ll let you read the book in order to find out, but suffice to say it’s one exciting story.

I’ll have to admit that I am a fan of cats. So, when I spot a book cover that has a picture with no less than three cats on the cover, I know that I am in the presence of some great literature. Thus I bring to your attention Cat Shining Bright by Shirley Rousseau Murphy. This is the 20th book in the Joe Grey mystery series. Joe Grey, if you have not met him before, is a cat living in the small California coastal town of Molena Point. While Joe may seem like an average, everyday cat, he does have a special talent. He’s great at helping to solve mysteries. Many times he’s better at it than the local Molena Point police. Since Joe does not speak English, he has to make his sleuthing skills visible in other clever ways. In this book, Joe has just become a father to three rambunctious kittens. When Joe stumbles upon a murder in a local hair salon he doesn’t realize his kids are following him inside, and this puts them in great danger. Can Joe, along with his lady cat friend, Dulcie, solve the mystery while protecting his kittens from grave danger? The book will tell you! I’ll add that I generally believe that all cats shine bright. The only exception would have to be the cat my best friend in elementary school had. The only person that cat liked was my friend’s mother. Everyone else, he would hiss at and try to scratch. What he was angry at all the time I’ll never know. He would always hang out in my friend’s basement where we would all want to go to play and he made playtime miserable for everyone. I’ll have to admit that cat was one nasty critter.

I also noticed All Signs Point to Murder by Connie di Marco. This book only has one cat on the cover, but it still seems like  a fun read. The second title in the Zodiac Mystery series,  the first being The Madness of Mercury. San Francisco astrologer Julia Bonatti sees ominous signs in the stars for her friend Geneva Leary’s upcoming wedding day. But Julia is a bridesmaid and she doesn’t want to ruin her friend’s special day. Julia never expected murder though. Can Julia’s astrological skills help her uncover some dark Leary family secrets and perhaps catch a killer?

To end my report I do want to say that I hope that the last title on my recommendations list does not portend the future. It’s an event that would really ruin Labor Day weekend. But I must mention the Massacre of Mankind by Stephen Baxter. This is an officially authorized sequel to H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. The action in Baxter’s book takes place 14 years after the events in Wells’ book. Everyone thinks that the Martians have been beaten and the world has moved on. But what if the first Martian invasion was only a practice run? What if the Martians have learned from their mistakes and this time they are coming back to get the job done right? People who recognize the true Martian danger are few and far between, and mostly ignored or laughed at. But, Walter Jenkins, the original narrator of Well’s book, is one of those few. He knows how much trouble Earth and mankind is in, and he is racing to make sure everyone else learns the truth fast.

A Book I Like – A Total Eclipse of My Heart

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American Eclipse by David Baron book cover

I’ve explained in a previous post that I really enjoy reading as a hobby. I do read a lot of books, many of which I enjoy and many of which I believe often do not get the notice they deserve. So, in these posts I plan to tell you about a book I have read that I think some of you might also like. I read mostly fiction, but I do read a wide variety of books that strike my fancy. And also, if we’re being honest, I should admit that I think highly of my own opinion and always want to share it far and wide.

For my first post in this series, I want to report on a very timely book that I just finished reading called American Eclipse : a Nation’s Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World by David Baron. Baron’s book is the story of the great 1878 total solar eclipse that was visible across a great swath of the United States, and the quest to show that America was worthy of a place among the great nations of the world for its growing scientific and industrial prowess.

As you may have heard there will be another total solar eclipse that will take place this year on Monday, August 21. Unfortunately, just like in 1878, Long Island is not in the path of totality, which means that we will only see a partial eclipse of the sun. Still it should be a fun show. And of course the Patchogue-Medford Library is planning an Eclipse Extravaganza to celebrate. Our own Martha and Jessica are throwing a big party with arts and crafts, refreshments, and a live video feed from NASA of the total eclipse. It will be held at the Carnegie Library from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM on August 21. Trust me when I say that I have been to library parties that Martha and Jessica have thrown in the past and believe it when I tell you that they know how to throw a party.

David Baron’s book is popular history at its best. I always used to be a person who thought that when it came to American history, that lots of important events happened from colonial days to the Civil War and then again from World War I to the present. In between from say 1865 to 1914, I once believed that not much of historical importance really happened and that the United States was run by a string of forgettable presidents, albeit presidents with great facial hair.

 

A president with great facial hair.

Over the years I have learned just how false that opinion was, and David Baron’s book is just the latest work to put the nail into that coffin for me. Baron uses the example of the Great Eclipse of 1878 to show just how active the intellectual ferment was in the country at that time. Many European scientist and engineers in their various royal societies looked down on American technological prowess of that era. The Eclipse of 1878 was the chance for America to prove that it could pull its own scientific weight in the world and should belong with the big boys.

Along the way Baron tells stories and anecdotes that illustrate the industrial, scientific, and technical ferment that was consuming the United States and its effort to be taken seriously in the front ranks of the nations of the world. Among other stories, this book tells of the true origin of the gypsy moth plague in the United States, the development of the telegraph and telephone, and of course the cutting edge scientific theory of the time regarding the deleterious effects of railroad travel on women’s reproductive parts. Watch out next time you are on the Long Island Rail Road ladies, because I don’t know if that theory has been officially disproved!

One story I particularly enjoyed was the fight over the telephone greeting. The story is that when Alexander Graham Bell first invented the telephone, he wanted everyone to use “ahoy” as the greeting whenever you picked up the phone. It was Thomas Edison who championed the now familiar “hello.” I think that’s too bad, as it seems like it would be great fun to shout, “ahoy” every time we answer the phone. Therefore, I propose that the library Board of Trustees take up a motion at their next meeting to adopt “Ahoy! Patchogue-Medford Library here mateys,” as our official phone greeting.

Many colorful characters fill the pages of the book, but Baron focuses on three major ones. The first was James Watson, a somewhat pompous University of Michigan professor and the man considered the leading American astronomer of the time. His quest was to prove that there was an undiscovered planet orbiting between the Sun and Mercury. The elusive planet Vulcan. Then there was Maria Mitchell, a professor of astronomy at Vassar College, which was then a women’s only school. Even though her scientific training and research was first rate, Mitchell and her female students had to struggle to get the respect and recognition their work deserved. They viewed the eclipse of 1878 as their big chance to attain equality, at least for their science. And finally, there is Thomas Edison, the great American inventor. His part in studying the 1878 eclipse was a trip out west to work on the tasimeter, a device used to measure small changes in temperature. Like a good thriller writer, Baron builds his oftentimes suspensful and exciting story by bringing all these major, and quite a few minor characters, together for the big 1878 eclipse viewing in Wyoming, where it could best be viewed.

I guarantee that you don’t have to be an umbraphile to enjoy this book. Anyone who enjoys popular history, the history of science, or wants to learn more about a lesser known period of American history would find American Eclipse well worth reading.

Reading Recommendations from the Depths: the Third Installment

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The sultry heat of summer may be dragging us all down, but have no fear as cool new books continue to arrive in the library basement on a regular basis. On those rare occasions when your humble writer makes it up to the ground level and is allowed outside, he often spends his time visiting various exhibitions of art and architecture in the metropolitan area. Thus, I want to report on four new books on art and architecture topics that have caught my eye. Several of these books are commemorating significant anniversaries in the art world that are taking place this year.

Do yourself a favor and head into New York City to the Museum of Modern Art to view the special exhibition, Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive. Its on view until October 1, so you have plenty of time, even though it seems like the Long Island Railroad may sometimes take until October to get you into Penn Station on an average day. The exhibition celebrates the 150th anniversary of Wright’s birth.  The complete archives of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation in Arizona were recently packed up and acquired by Columbia University and the Museum of Modern Art and shipped to New York City. The Wright exhibition includes a small, but completely absorbing selection of the holdings and is divided into 12 sections, each investigating a particular structure or theme in Wright’s work. If you visit the museum, you’re in for a true multimedia feast, as the exhibit features photographs, sketches, drawings and plans, film, pieces of furniture and decorative art, 3D models and more to illustrate different aspects of Wright’s work. The models of Wright’s proposed St. Mark’s apartment tower in New York City and for the Guggenheim Museum are incredible. Our newly acquired book, Frank Lloyd Wright: Unpacking the Archive gives you a great overview of what you can see at the exhibition and some more details on Wright’s creative process.

In my opinion Frank Lloyd Wright probably was a genius, but he certainly had a big ego and was quite the showman.  Late in life he spontaneously decided to call a news conference to propose an actual mile high skyscraper to be built in Chicago. Did anyone actually ask for such a building? Was there any way a building like that could have been built at the time? Did anyone have the money to pay for it? The answer to all these questions is no, but that didn’t stop Wright from showing off his vision of what he thought the world should need.

For the revitalization of downtown Pittsburgh he proposed a giant, spiral, ziggurat-like structure that would have included a football stadium, a basketball arena, an opera house and theater among other wonders. To access these attractions you would have driven up a giant spiral ramp on the outside of the ziggurat that would have totaled over 4.5 miles in length. If you got tired of driving you could stop at any one of a number of shops, restaurants, and even a hotel on the way to the top. Incredible!

You can see drawings and plans for both projects at the exhibit. As great as the current exhibition is, I hope that some day they build a museum in New York City just to show off more of Frank Lloyd Wright’s archive. It’s really an amazing glimpse into one of the most fascinating figures in American architectural history.

Here’s a few pictures I took at the exhibition…

Drawing of proposed downtown Pittsburgh development by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Model of proposed St. Mark’s Tower for New York City by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Sketch of the interior of the Dana House in Springfield, Illinois by Frank Lloyd Wright.

 

100 Years, 100 Buildings is architecture critic John Hill’s choice of the most significant and consequential architectural work for each year from 1916 to 2015. One building is chosen per year. There has been a lot of good modern architecture built over the last century and there are many fascinating examples in this book. You will see many world-famous structures, as well as many lesser known works. Some are quite beautiful, others perhaps not, but that is probably a matter of individual taste. Take a look at some of the entries and judge for yourself. A timeline in the back of the book lists Hill’s other nominees for “building of the year.” Each entry includes at least one color photo and a full page description of the building.

You can see three of the profiled buildings right here in New York, including the Seagram Building (1958), the Guggenheim Museum (1959), and the Ford Foundation headquarters (1968). I have personally been able to see 15 of the author’s choices for myself. I hope to make it 16 , by taking a trip to see the 1938 choice, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, sometime later in the fall.

The Asia Society on Park Avenue in Manhattan is an educational institution dedicated to promoting partnerships and understanding between the United States and the people of Asia. The society includes a museum and exhibition space, but it is certainly not large enough to show off their vast collection of treasures from every corner of Asia. That’s why the book, Treasures of Asian Art: the Asia Society Museum Collection is so valuable. You can see images of priceless objects – sculpture, painting, pottery and porcelain – that are rarely on view at the museum. 2017 is the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Asia Society. I always find it interesting to look at Asian art of all types. Many of the objects are of course beautiful in their own right, but I also find that I can often look at them with a more neutral and less judgmental eye than when I look at pieces of  European and American art. This is because I just know so much less about Asian culture, history, and religion than I do about its western counterpart and I just come at the works with less prejudice. The Asia Society has great exhibitions, but also visit the Rubin Museum and the Metropolitan for other nice collections of Asian works.

Now I’ll admit that we usually don’t get many hippies visiting us in the basement of the library, but if they did show up they would probably get misty-eyed when looking at the new book, Summer of Love: Art, Fashion and Rock and Roll.  This book is definitely full of memories for all the great times they must have had back then. That’s if they can remember them. The hippies can look at fashion objects, psychedelic posters, album cover art and more from their heyday fifty years ago during the Summer of Love in San Francisco. Do take a look at the book as it is indeed “far out” and a great trip. But, even if you’re not a hippie yourself, you can still capture some of the spirit of the Age of Aquarius by coming down to the main library and taking a look at our very own Summer of Love mural on the back wall facing the Terry Street parking lot. Don’t delay though, because it will only be here until September. Our understanding is that the mural has become quite the local tourist attraction. If you were an actual hippie you would definitely be tripping over to the library ASAP. Peace man!

Reading Recommendations from the Depths – Part the Deux

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I was able to escape the depths of the library last week to attend BookExpo in New York City. Now however, I am back in the basement, so I thought it time for another installment of Reading Recommendations from the Depths. If you missed the first post and the rationale behind these postings you can read about it here.

This week another tasty cart of books wound up in front of my desk. I mean that literally, because one of the books is new from the Food52 recipe exchange. They have published Mighty Salads: 60 New Ways to Turn Salad into Dinner. I have been thinking that I should eat more salad, and my doctor told me a few weeks ago, “Bruce, you should eat more salad [and vegetables].” So, it looks like the stars are aligned for me and this book. And lest you think that these salads are all for vegetarians and rabbit food eaters, rest assured that many of the recipes involve creative uses of various meats, seafood, beans, grains, pasta, and even bread to add some oomph to your salad creation. Try the Grilled Bread, Broccoli Rabe & Summer Squash Salad or the Grilled Steak and Tossed Salsa Verde Salad. Looking through the book, it looks like almost all the ingredients should be pretty easy to find at the neighborhood supermarket or local farmer’s market. And if you like to grow your own veggies, don’t forget that you can now even borrow seeds right from the Patchogue-Medford Library.

If you do wind up puttering around your own backyard garden, the only wildlife you are likely to see on Long Island is the occasional squirrel, bunny rabbit, or stray kitty. However, if one day you do happen to see a very large Godzilla-like creature shambling across your backyard or perhaps want to identify the one destroying Tokyo, then the library has the book for you. The second edition of The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs has arrived. This is an exhaustive guidebook for all you dino-hunters out there, whether armchair or in the field, that has extensive drawings and diagrams, facts and figures on over 750 dinosaur species. For example, on page 224 you can read about Euhelopus zdanskyi, who was over 35 feet tall and weighed more than 3 1/2 tons. He would definitely not be helpful in the tomato patch. I am amazed at just how many dinosaur species there are. The book lists over 100 species discovered in just the past few years since the first edition was published. When I was young I was a dinosaur fan, but back then we only seemed to have brontosaurus, tyranosaurus, stegosaurus, triceratops, and the coolest one for me, the pterodactyl. I don’t know where all the new ones came from!

If your tastes run more toward fun and games why not read It’s All a Game: The History of Board Games from Monopoly to Settlers of Catan. This is a worldwide history of tabletop gaming, and includes everything from checkers, chess, and go to Monopoly, Life, Twister, and Clue. It was always better when Colonel Mustard was the guilty party. The book tells you the behind the scenes stories of the development of your favorite games, some of which were came about in really surprising ways. I’m always up for a good game of Monopoly, and board games seem to be growing in popularity every day. We do have board game nights here at the library and did you also know that we have a growing collection of outdoor games that Patchogue-Medford residents can borrow to use during the summer.

Reading Recommendations From the Depths

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I’ve come to the conclusion that the time has come to start writing a new regular blog posting for the library. First some background though. My name is Bruce and I spend most of my time working downstairs in the Technical Services department. Technical Services is the part of the library that is responsible for ordering, cataloging, and processing just about any material that comes into the library, be it a book, DVD, music CD, or even a game or museum pass. We do all sorts of other things like checking in magazines, repairing damaged books and other items, making lists of items and compiling statistics, discarding old and damaged items and much more, but for the purposes of this post and future writings,  I want to focus on what happens when we get a delivery of new books into the library.

We are always ordering new books and audiovisual materials here in Technical Services, both to meet your requests and also to build the library collection. When we receive an order of new books our procedure is to open the boxes and check to make sure the library is getting what we are paying for. We then fill any of your holds and/or requests from other libraries and pay the invoice. After we fill any holds, the remaining books are placed on an empty cart in the Technical Services department. Pages from the reference department come downstairs later in the day to take the books upstairs to shelve and make them available for you to browse. It is the books that wind up on the cart in the Technical Services department that I want to tell you about.

As an inveterate book looker, I find that I am unable to pass up the opportunity to look through a display of new books, whether they are here in the library, in a bookstore, at another library, or most especially from a display of a vendor on the street. You just never know what treasures you may find. So, when the clerks finish checking in our new books they leave them on a cart, which just happens to sit right in front of my desk. No matter how busy I am, I can’t help but take the time to paw through these new morsels. I’ve always found that there just always are a lot of really good books on that cart. These books aren’t usually by popular, bestselling authors, and they don’t receive much publicity, so sometimes I’m afraid that they just languish in obscurity and don’t receive the attention they deserve. A lot of them are books that I really wish I could read, but that I just don’t have time for, and books that I think that you, our patrons, might enjoy if only you knew about them. I’ll admit that I feel a little sorry for all the good books on the cart that just need to find the right reader. Sort of like the sad little puppy at the shelter, who just needs someone to love him.

Why am I going to call these postings Reading Recommendations from the Depths? Well, the Technical Services department is located in the basement, all the way in the back corner of the library. We are actually right next to the boiler room. So, as you can see, us technical services people are really down in the depths of the library. We don’t mind though, because our little space lets us concentrate on getting our work done.

For this inaugural column of Reading Recommendations from the Depths, I found that there were a number of books on a recent cart dealing with one of my favorite subjects – travel.  There are basically only three things I do in life, besides work in the library, and those things are reading, watching movies, and traveling. In this post I can combine two of those interests. So for my inaugural Reading Recommendations from the Depths I will recommend some really interesting travel books that I found and that I think should get more attention.

Novel Destinations by Shannon McKenna Schmidt and Joni Rendon is a travel guide to locations made famous in various novels, stories, plays, and poems or that are associated with famous writers. So, if you really enjoy the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway and many other writers, why not pick up this book and find out how to visit their birthplaces, museums, drinking joints, and other favorite haunts. Other chapters bring famous literary locales such as Jane Austen’s Bath, England or James Joyce’s Dublin to life with background history, sample walks and can’t miss sites. You can also get information on countless literary festivals and book-themed bars, hotels, and restaurants. Novel Destinations is an honest to goodness travel guide, so not only is it full of literary trivia and references, but it also lists opening hours, addresses, and websites for most of the places described.

The Storied City: the Quest for Timbuktu and the Fantastic Mission to Save Its Past by Charlie English tells the story of the fabled African city of Timbuktu in both the Western imagination and in its actual place in African history as a centuries-old center of learning and culture. Timbuktu always seemed to me to be someplace that I would love to visit, but it was also a place that I could never be sure exactly what might be real and what I might just be imagining about it from movies and other inaccurate portrayals in literature. English shows that the history is all too real, and he is especially good when discussing the recent history of the city and the 2012 invasion by jihadists and the quest to save precious ancient manuscripts and other artifacts from the invaders.

One of my favorite types of books to read through are travel guidebooks. Just plain Fodors, Frommers, Lonely Planet, you name them, and I just love to browse through them to plan where I want to travel to in the future or to see what’s new in a place I have already been to. On this cart there happened to be a bumper crop of brand new travel guides. There were guides to England, Scotland, and Wales. Also one to Canada and another to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Closer to home in the good old USA, we received in guidebooks to Washington, Oregon, and The Pacific Northwest, Minneapolis & St. Paul, Charleston and Savannah, Michigan, and an interesting looking Walking Los Angeles. If you have some free time coming up, maybe you might want to use one of these books to guide you on your next adventure. If you happen to be swamped with work or family obligations, maybe a night in an armchair with one of these guides can help you dream of a far off place.

Our New What Should I Read Next? List is Now Available

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Our What Should I Read Next? list is now available for new bestselling and notable fiction titles being published from January through April 2017. A copy is available online, or you may pick up a print copy at the adult reference or Main desks. Titles on the list are available to reserve through our catalog, and some may be available in multiple formats such as large print and audiobook. Most titles should also be available through our downloadable ebook and e-audiobook service, Live-brary.

Plenty of books by your favorite authors will be available to get you through the cold winter nights, and remember that by the time the April books you have reserved come in that spring will already be in the air. So, stock up on the hot chocolate for the winter months and maybe get some iced tea and lemonade ready for the spring. Look for new books from David Baldacci, Reed Farrel Coleman, Lisa Gardner, Gregg Hurwitz, Greg Iles, Jonathan Kellerman, and Jacqueline Winspear. And of course, James Patterson (1,2), Danielle Steel (1,2), and Stuart Woods (1,2) will each have two books coming out during the quarter!

Literary fiction fans also have much to look forward to, as many of our best writers are also releasing new titles this Winter. Try the latest books by Neil Gaiman, Pam Jenoff, Elinor Lipman, Joyce Carol Oates, and George Saunders. One literary title to keep an eye on may be the new book from Elizabeth Kostova, The Shadow Land. If you remember, she wrote the mega-bestseller, The Historian, a few years back, which was a retelling of the Dracula legend.

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.

Our New What Should I Read Next? List is Now Available.

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Our What Should I Read Next? list is now available for new bestselling and notable fiction titles being published from September through December 2016. A copy is available online, or you may pick up a print copy at the adult reference or Main desks. Titles on the list are available to reserve through our catalog, and some may be available in multiple formats such as large print or audiobook.

Now’s the time to tune up your reading glasses, get the cozy chair re-upholstered, and stock up on some good strong tea, because this coming fall will be a busy season for hot, new releases. In anticipation of the upcoming holiday selling season, it seems that almost all of our favorite authors will have new books coming out. Jeffrey Archer, Lee Child, Harlan Coben, Patricia Cornwell, Clive Cussler, Janet Evanovich, Vince Flynn, John Grisham, James Patterson, Jodi Picoult, John Sandford, Nicholas Sparks, and Danielle Steel are some of the big names with new titles.

Literary fiction fans also have much to look forward to, as many of our best writers are also releasing new titles this Fall. Try the latest books by Margaret Atwood, T.C. Boyle, Michael Chabon, Herman Koch, Zadie Smith, and Amor Towles.

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.

Hurricane James Patterson on Course to Hit Patchogue-Medford Library This Summer

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news-bookshots

We do many things well here at Patchogue-Medford Library, but one thing we can’t do is to predict the weather. So, while we’re not cautioning you to batten down the hatches to ride out a summer tempest just yet, we want to give you advance notice that if you plan to visit the library in the coming months that the weather inside may be a bit unsettled. If you’re a fan of James Patterson, you will be happy to know that he is planning on writing up a storm this summer and fall. Not only will he be releasing several titles featuring the continuing exploits of some of his popular series characters, but he is also creating a whole new line of books that are sure to be hits with his many fans.  No doubt, judging by all the reserves our patrons put on James Patterson’s books, that there will surely be a big windstorm inside the library caused by everyone rushing to grab all his new titles.

BookShots is James Patterson’s new line of quick and easy reads. They are designed to answer the question – “What if someone wrote novels…and took out all the boring parts!?” Each book in the series is 150 pages or less, designed to be read in a single sitting, are “impossible to put down” and are able to be “read on any device.” In a recent New York Times article James Patterson said “you can race through these — they’re like reading movies.”

Some of the books were written by Patterson himself and are stories featuring some of his favorite characters, some were created in collaboration with other authors, and a few books in the series will even be romance novels written by new and upcoming authors in the field. The first two books in the BookShots lineup will be Cross Kill and Zoo 2. Both are short novels, the first with Detective Alex Cross, and the second a continuation of his recent bestseller Zoo. They will both be released on June 7.

A Bookshots app will be available shortly for Apple and Android devices. Eventually there are plans to release 2-4 books per month with the BookShots imprint, and some will even be non-fiction with a focus on current events and issues. Right now it looks like all the books will be released in paperback with audiobook versions also available for several of them. It doesn’t look like any large print versions are being planned as of now.

Here is a list of all the BookShots titles that we know of so far. Get your reserves in now:

And just in case you missed our What Should I Read Next? list, here are all of James Patterson’s regular releases due out soon:

Our New What Should I Read Next? List is Now Available.

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Our What Should I Read Next? list is now available for new bestselling and notable fiction titles being published from May through August 2016. A copy is available online, or you may pick up a print copy at the adult reference or Main desks. Titles on the list are available to reserve through our catalog, and some may be available in multiple formats such as large print or audiobook. Some of our favorite returning bestselling authors include Linda Castillo, Clive Cussler, Catherine Coulter, Linda Fairstein, Elin Hilderbrand, Debbie Macomber, and Ridley Pearson. And how could a month go by without a new James Patterson book? Suffice it to say that Mr. Patterson will be a busy writer this summer. We will report more on all his new books in a future post. In the meantime you can reserve his new Michael Bennett novel, Bullseye.

One writer you think you may know well is embarking upon a new direction. You may know Laura Childs for her cozy Tea and Scrapbooking mystery series. This summer though, under the pseudonym of Gerry Schmitt, she is releasing Little Girl Gone, a thriller that takes a much a much darker and disturbing turn then her past work. Here, Minneapolis, Minnesota Detective Afton Tangler must find a missing child before his city erupts and the kidnapper strikes again.

And the author of this post would be remiss if he did not mention that several of his own favorite authors are publishing new mystery/thrillers this summer. First is a new book in the Chief Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny, A Great Reckoning. This dark and atmospheric series is always a pleasure to read. Here Armand Gamache and his colleagues and neighbors in the seemingly idyllic village of Three Pines, Quebec continue to uncover dark secrets from their past. This time the curious discovery of an antique map leads to strange and shattering conclusions for Gamache. Though you can read each book in this series on its own, it is really worth starting at the beginning with the first book, Still Life.

Another mystery series to savor from the beginning is Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway books. Ruth is an independent, free-thinking single mother and forensic archaeologist living and teaching in a remote coastal village near Norfolk, England.  It seems that bodies are always turning up around here, and Ruth’s particular skills and knowledge of the secrets hidden in the bogs and marshes always come in handy, particularly to the married Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson, who also happens to be the father of her child. The latest book in the series, number 8, is The Woman in Blue. This time visions of a mysterious woman in white involve the Anglican church in a tangled web of lies and deceptions.

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.

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