Wednesday, May 22, 2013

SCOTT and ZELDA -- ECHOES OF THE JAZZ AGE



     


During his lifetime, The Great Gatsby brought F. Scott Fitzgerald only $8397.00 in royalties. Today the book is a staple in high school and university English classrooms and is widely regarded as one of the greatest 20th century American novels. On June 10, 2009, a first edition copy sold for $180,000.00 at Bonham's in New York.



Scott, as he was called, was born on September 24, 1896, at 481 Laurel Avenue in St. Paul.  This Side of Paradise, his first novel,  was published to wide acclaim in March 1920.  The Beautiful and Damned followed in 1922, The Great Gatsby in 1925, and Tender is the Night in 1934. During the early 1930s, he was one of the highest-paid writers in America, earning $4000.00 per story from The Saturday Evening Post.


East Central Regional Library owns many of Fitzgerald's works in various formats.  With Baz Luhrmann's dazzling, ambitious, over-the-top adaptation of The Great Gatsby currently in theatres, there is a renewed interest in Fitzgerald, the Roaring Twenties, and the Jazz Age.  Check out the following, available through any ECRL branch library:






Fiction

"Beautiful Fools" by R. Clifton Spargo
"Call Me Zelda" by Erika Robuck
"Gatsby's Girl" by Caroline Preston
"The Paris Wife" by Paula McLain
"The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
"Tales of the Jazz Age" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
"Z:  A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald" by Therese Ann Fowler    


Nonfiction

"A Moveable Feast" by Ernest Hemingway
"Everybody Was So Young" by Amanda Vaill
"Sometimes Madness is Wisdom" by Kendall Taylor
"Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
"Anything Goes" by Lucy Moore
"Fool for Love:  F. Scott Fitzgerald" by Scott Donaldson  


 DVDs

"Midnight in Paris" starring Owen Wilson
"The Moderns" starring Keith Carradine
"The Great Gatsby" starring Robert Redford
"The Sun Also Rises" starring Ava Gardner
"Chicago" starring Renee Zellweger
"Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries" starring Essie Davis


If you haven't read F. Scott Fitzgerald since high school, it may be time to revisit Nick Carroway, Daisy Buchanan, and Jay Gatsby. And perhaps ponder again the closing words of Fitzgerald's most famous novel, which seem to whisper of the Jazz Age and the "Lost Generation" -----


"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past"

Bob Gray
Reference and Interlibrary Loan Librarian


Thursday, May 16, 2013

Big Library Read


East Central Regional Library is participating in the Big Library Read and you are invited to join us!
You’ve heard of community wide reading programs.  How about a worldwide reading program?  Join millions of eBook readers around the world participating in the first ever Big Library Read of an eBook.

Big Library Read is a pilot program sponsored by OverDrive (ECRL’s eBook vendor) and Sourcebooks (the leading independent publisher) as an opportunity to unite readers and loyal library supporters all over the world in reading a single eBook at the same time: The Four Corners of the Sky by Michael Malone. 

The Four Corners of the Sky is master storyteller Michael Malone’s novel of love, secrets, and the mysterious bonds of families.  Malone brings characters to life as only he can, exploring the questions that defy easy answers: Is love a choice or a calling? Why do the ties of family bind so tightly? And is forgiveness a gift to others...or a gift we give ourselves? (Adult Fiction)

The especially unique aspect about the Big Library Read is that, for the duration of the program, May 15-June 1, 2013, the eBook will not follow the traditional one copy/one user model but will simultaneously be available to all ECRL eBook users to borrow via our Digital Library.  The eBook will be available in the following formats: OverDrive Read, Kindle, Adobe EPUB, and Adobe PDF, thus also guaranteeing it will be accessible for every eBook user on all major devices.

In addition to creating a global “library book club,” Big Library Read is designed to demonstrate the positive exposure and sales influence library eBook catalogs provide to authors and publishers.   So join us in reading the eBook The Four Corners of the Sky by Michael Malone via our Digital Library from May 15-June 1, 2013.

Sarah Biro, Branch Librarian, Chisago Lakes Area Library

Monday, May 13, 2013

Forthcoming titles - May

Forthcoming titles - Click here to search for and place your hold on the ECRL catalog

ADULT FICTION

CANDLELIGHT CHRISTMAS Wiggs, Susan
DOING HARD TIME Woods, Stuart
DUST Cornwell, Patricia Daniels
GODS OF GUILT Connelly, Michael
GONE Patterson, James
KING AND MAXWELL Baldacci, David
MACNAMARA'S WOMAN Scott, Alicia
MIRAGE Cussler, Clive
MIRROR, MIRROR Robb, J. D.
OUTLAW Dekker, Ted
SEASIDE CHRISTMAS Woods, Sherryl
SIMPLE CHRISTMAS WISH Carlson, Melody
SISTERS OF MERCY FLATS Copeland, Lori
SPYMISTRESS Chiaverini, Jennifer
STARRY NIGHT Macomber, Debbie
STORM FRONT Sandford, John
SYCAMORE ROW Grisham, John
THANKLESS IN DEATH Robb, J. D.
TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELL: BLACKLIST Telep, Peter
UNTAMED HEART Snelling, Lauraine
WINNERS: A NOVEL Steel, Danielle

LARGE PRINT

9TH GIRL Hoag, Tami
BOMBSHELL Coulter, Catherine
CLASSIFIED Michaels, Fern
DARK WITCH Roberts, Nora
DEADLINE Brown, Sandra
GONE Patterson, James
HOPE OF SPRING: A LANCASTER COUNTY SAGA Brunstetter, Wanda E.
KING AND MAXWELL Baldacci, David
LONGEST RIDE Sparks, Nicholas
OUTLAW Dekker, Ted
SECRET KEEPER Lewis, Beverly
STARRY NIGHT: A CHRISTMAS NOVEL Macomber, Debbie
SWEET TEA REVENGE Childs, Laura
SYCAMORE ROW Grisham, John
UNTITLED PLUM #20 Evanovich, Janet
WINNERS: A NOVEL Steel, Danielle

BOOKS ON CD

CASTLES Garwood, Julie
DEADLINE Brown, Sandra
DECEPTION COVE Castle, Jayne
FINAL CUT Coulter, Catherine
GODS OF GUILT Connelly, Michael
GONE Patterson, James
HUNTING EVE Johansen, Iris
KING AND MAXWELL Baldacci, David
LAST WITNESS Griffin, W. E. B.
MAGGIE'S MAN Scott, Alicia
MAYAN SECRETS Cussler, Clive
THORNE Jackson, Lisa
MIRAGE Cussler, Clive
OUTLAW Dekker, Ted
READY TO DIE Jackson, Lisa
SERVANTS OF TWILIGHT Koontz, Dean R.
SYCAMORE ROW Grisham, John
THANKLESS IN DEATH Robb, J. D.
TIME TO KILL Grisham, John
VOW FOR ALWAYS Brunstetter, Wanda E.
W IS FOR WASTED Grafton, Sue
WEDDING Garwood, Julie

Marcia Ledin, Technical Services Coordinator

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Hachette Book Group eBooks


Beginning today, May 8, 2013, Hachette Book Group joined the list of leading publishers allowing library lending of eBooks via OverDrive.  This means making its entire catalog of more than 5,000 eBooks available to libraries, such as East Central Regional Library, to license for our Digital Library.  

Hachette eBooks will follow the one-copy/one-user lending model, and there will be no checkout or term limits for the titles on the OverDrive platform. Hachette eBooks will also be available the same day as when the book is released in print.  New titles will, however, be priced at 300% markup from the same item in print format.

Some of ECRL's most popular authors are published by Hachette Book Group.  They include:

·         David Baldacci
·         Sandra Brown
·         Carol Higgins Clark
·         Michael Connelly
·         Nelson DeMille
·         Dorothy Garlock
·         Karen Kingsbury
·         James Patterson
·         Nicholas Sparks

Watch for some of these popular titles to hit East Central Regional Library’s Digital Library soon!  

Sarah Biro, Branch Librarian, Chisago Lakes Area Library

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

OverDrive Next Generation Catalog & Recommend to Library


Today, the OverDrive Next Generation Catalog launched on East Central Regional Library's Digital Library website!

Now, borrowing eBooks from ECRL is even easier! You can even read books from within your web browser in a new format called OverDrive Read.  Want to learn details about the upgrade? Discover the Next Generation experience here

Along with this update, a new feature has been added which makes suggesting titles for the Digital Library Collection much easier! 
You can now recommend eBook & eAudio titles to the library using a “Recommend to Library” feature. To use this feature, first login to your account and perform a search for the title in the Digital Library.  If the title you are looking for is not listed in the Library Collection, change the dropdown menu under Show Me from My Library’s Collection to “Additional Titles to recommend.”


You will then see all available titles in the OverDrive collection that the library has not yet purchased. These titles will be indicated with a “Recommend” button as shown here:


Please note that the library can only purchase materials on this list of additional titles. Titles not on this list are most likely absent because of publisher restrictions (See “Why Can’t I Get this eBook from ECRL?”). After clicking the “Recommend” button, you will see a popup window that looks like this:

You can choose to be notified by email if the library decides to purchase your title and also be placed on the waitlist if and when the title is purchased. Click “Recommend this Title” to finish the process. Please keep in mind that recommendations are not a guarantee that the library will purchase the title and are subject to factors such as available funds.

Sarah Biro, Branch Librarian, Chisago Lakes Area Library