Our Upcoming Bestsellers & Notable Books list is now available for new bestselling and notable fiction titles being published from January through April 2021. 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. The publishing industry seems to have stabilized and many of our favorite authors will be having new books out during the Winter. 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. Returning favorites include new books by Lincoln Child, Greg Hurwitz, Kristin Hannah, Jonathan Kellerman, C.J. Box, Harlan Coben, and Lisa Scottoline. And those two old writing warhorses James Patterson and Danielle Steel each have multiple books on tap. For Patterson try Till Murder Do Us Part, The Palm Beach Murders and The Red Book, while Danielle Steel offers Neighbors, The Affair and Finding Ashley.
Banned Books Week is September 27-October 3rd
Launched in the 1980s with help from the American Library Association, Banned Books Week is a celebration of the freedom to read that now reaches nearly 3 billion readers every year.
The freedom to read is a key piece of intellectual freedom – the crucial freedom to hold, receive, and disseminate ideas from all points of view without restriction. Intellectual freedom is very important to libraries – they are committed to providing the ideas and information, in a variety of formats, to allow people to inform themselves.
Despite the success of Banned Books Week, censorship (the suppression of ideas and information that certain persons find objectionable or dangerous) still occurs and books are still being banned and challenged across the United States and the world.
Librarians, teachers, students, and community members must continue to stand up and speak out for the lifelong freedom to read and against censorship.
Read on to learn about some important banned books, some reasons why they were challenged or banned, and how you can read them for yourself!
[Read more…]Our Upcoming Bestsellers and Notable Fiction books list for Fall 2020 is now available
Our What Should I Read Next? list is now available for new bestselling and notable fiction titles being published from September through December 2020. A copy is available online, or you may pick up a print copy at the adult reference or Main desks. If you’re taking advantage of our curbside pickup service, ask for a copy to be included with your checkouts. All titles on the list are available to reserve through our catalog, some in multiple formats such as large print and audiobook. The publishing industry seems to have stabilized and many of our favorite authors will be having new books out during the Fall. Returning favorites include new books by David Baldacci, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Carl Hiaasen, Elin Hilderbrand, Louise Penny, Jodi Picoult, and Nicholas Sparks. 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 The Coast to Coast Murders, Murder thy Neighbor, Three Women Disappear, Deadly Cross, and NYPD Red 6 . 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.
Frames Of Reference: “The Phantom Of The Opera” (1925)
“Sanctuary of song lovers, The Paris Opera House, rising nobly over medieval torture chambers, hidden dungeons, long forgotten…”
Seemingly tailor-made for the medium of silent cinema, “Le Fantôme de l’Opéra” (“The Phantom Of The Opera”), Gaston Leroux’s then relatively unknown 1910 novel, was envisioned by Hollywood’s Universal Studios as a lavishly conceived and funded thriller, termed their annual “Super Jewel” production for 1925. But, alas, its creation ended up being hobbled and undermined by personality conflicts, differences of artistic opinion, and arguably uninspired staging. And the result became one of the more notoriously troubled productions of the silent cinema era, with a tortured history of retakes and edits yielding no one “pure” or “official” version of the film (although, all told, there are five good contenders).
Bringing the Phantom to life was Lon Chaney, fancifully known in the silent cinema era as “The Man Of A Thousand Faces”. Rising above the mediocrity of the performances surrounding him, his masterful performance, arguably the salvation of the film, successfully adds the character of Erik, the eponymous Phantom, to his legendary and well-established stable of lovelorn, physically deformed characters. And at the revelation of yet another of the masterful makeups for which he was famous, that of a death’s head, a grotesque parody of a human face turned inside out, movie house audiences of the time reportedly screamed with horror and shock.
The result emerged a classic, and it ended up being the most faithful cinematic adaptation of Leroux’s novel, and one without which it is doubtful that Andrew Lloyd Webber’s famous musical adaptation would ever have been attempted.
More, at the Library