Teens Only | It Came from the Library

October 14-20 is Teen Read Week, an annual celebration of teen books sponsored by the American Library Association. This year's theme is "It Came from the Library," in celebration of books made into movies.

Think you know your books and movies? Ok. Let's try a little trivia. Questions coming up. Answers can be found on the whole list of Teen Read Week books. 

Check them out.

I'll give you the answers to these trivia questions next week (Saturday). Good luck!

1. In this book/movie, an arrogant student is put under a spell that makes him as ugly as his soul.

2. This book was, in large part, the basis for the movie "Mean Girls."

3. The title of this movie is an anagram of the book title on which it is based.

4. Alexis Beidel and Jonathan Jackson star in this movie based on a book published in 1975.

5. The original title of this book is Die unendliche Geschichte.

6. This author was 15 years old when he began work on this first book of a trilogy.

Books On Film | Stephen King

In honor of Halloween, I'll spend the month of October talking about several spooky adaptations of adult and children's books!

Stephen King has been publishing books for thirty-eight years and the large majority of what he's penned has been adapted into films, many of which are now considered horror classics. 

 

Hollywood Movies

His first novel, Carrie (published in 1974), was adapted into a film starring Sissy Spacek and with that, the title wave of Stephen King adaptations began. Some of his most famous big screen horror films are The Shining (1976) with Jack Nicholson, Firestarter (1979) with Drew Barrymore, and Misery (1987) with Kathy Bates. He also penned movie classics The Shawkshank Redemption (1981) and The Green Mile (2006) with Tom Hanks.

Television Movies & Miniseries  

Not only have his novels been made into big screen movie productions, but also into television movies by network and cable channels. Some of the most famous television horror adaptations include Salem's Lot (1975), IT (1986) with Tim Curry, The Tommyknockers (1987), and The Langoliers (1989).

Television Shows

King's stories have also been adapted into several television shows. The most well known adaptation is the USA Network series based on The Dead Zone (1976), starring Anthony Michael Hall. 

If you take a look at Stephen King's catalog of titles you will be very surprised at just how many of your favorite movies are based on his books.

Do you have a favorite Stephen King book or movie? Comment below! 

 
Bibliographic Source: StephenKing.com - The Library
[Cover images courtesy of LibraryThing]

Food, Food, Food! | Cooking Competitions on Television: How Your Library Can Assist You with This Obsession

I find myself compulsively watching cooking competitions on television.  My dogs watch with me, although that could have more to do with their interest in cuddling with me than the content on the telly.  I watch every Top Chef version, Hell’s Kitchen, Master Chef and anything else I stumble upon.  The competition aspect is critical because as one friend pointed out; “If weather could figure out how to compete Peaches would watch The Weather Channel.”  It’s true.  I am very seldom going to make anything I watch someone make, let alone eat it, especially if anything like kale or pretty much anything green is going to be in it. 

Many of the world’s famous chefs have cookbooks that we keep in our libraries.  (I love that there are so many famous chefs now.   People have heard of chefs besides Julia Child and Alice Waters.)  I am going to share a list of some books both about competitive eating/cooking and by chefs who are on tv.

Some cooking from television's favorite chefs that the library carries are: 

Emeril's TV Dinners  by Emeril Lagasse

Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone by Curtis Stone

The Naked Chef Takes Off by Jamie Oliver

Constant Curiosity | Hidden Treasures

     Reading a novel, other than for the sheer pleasure of visiting other people and places, often yields treasures (to me, anyway) beyond what the story is ostensibly about.  Recently I read a book about an artist who was painting "cowboy angels" and as he painted, he listened to Gram Parsons and Emmy Lou Harris singing "Return of the Grievous Angel" (on Sacred Hearts & Fallen Angels) so nothing would do but I had to hear that song.  Right then.  Pandora and Youtube to the rescue.  

Later the artist listened to Carlos Santana and Yo Yo Ma's duet of George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps,"  (sung by Indie.Arie.)  Really lovely, and the vision of the artist at work came to three dimensional life in my mind.  The book I was reading?  Marathon Cowboys by Sarah Black, unfortunately only available as an ebook.  Full disclosure:  it's a book that might be considered an 'alternative' romance, so fair warning.

This little adventure got me thinking about my many years as a reference librarian and being asked about books that appeared within books (or were mentioned in movies) and how to find them.  This was before the Internet, so it  involved actual research in books.  One of my favorites concerned the film "Four Weddings and a Funeral" when an inquiring mind called the reference desk to ask about the 'William Holden' poem recited in the film.  Fortunately I had seen the movie the past weekend so I knew it was actually by W.H. Auden: "Funeral Blues."

"Funeral Blues", or "Stop All the Clocks" as the Auden poem is sometimes referred to, is an actual poem, but an author might invent books that exist only in his or her extra-fertile imagination, sometimes as MacGuffins or just to further or enrich the plot and sometimes for just plain entertainment, probably for themselves as much as the reader.  Writing is serious business; who can blame a hard-working writer for wanting to dabble in nonsense now and then?

Some of the authors who seem to be having too much fun are J.K. Rowling in the Harry Potter books:  Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit and Men Who Love Dragons Too Much; Lemony Snicket, a possibly (just saying) made-up author, has a wonderful list of
invented books, such as The Big Peruvian Book of Small Peruvian Snakes and Handbook for Advanced Apostrophe Use. 

One very popular invented book was Dean Koontz's Book of Counted Sorrows, which readers asked librarians and booksellers about all the time.  Koontz himself said he received up to 3,000 letters a year about this 'book.'  Koontz finally published several editions of his made-up book, now out of print and selling for up to $1800.00.

Of course I had to find more about fictional books. I couldn't help but wish that some of the titles listed were actual books, i.e.  How I Scaled the North Face of the Megapurna with a Perfectly Healthy Finger But Everything Else Sprained, Broken or Bitten Off By a Pack of Mad Yaks  as referred to in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Series

What would you call your imaginary book?  My current favorite: (a memoir)   The Hazards of Reading in the Bathtub and Other Unlikely Places:  A Sometimes Soggy Adventure Story.

Wanderlust Librarian | Food Trucks

Travel is always a destination (well....almost). Sometimes it's fun to go to a new place just to find new food!

Back when I was younger, there was the taco truck: a big metal box that sold tacos and burritos. More often than not, the best tacos and burritos came out of those trucks at cheap prices. For a high school / college student, they were a sight for sore eyes.

Over the past few years, the big metal boxes have risen to cult status as Food Trucks: big metal boxes that sell all sorts of delicious food at reasonable prices. It's a great way to try a different cuisine without buying a huge meal. In fact, it's a great way to get a lot of different kinds of food for the price of dinner and dessert at a regular restaurant. One of the first food trucks I went to was the Kogi Truck in Southern California. They sold amazing things like Kimchee Dogs and Korean BBQ Beef Tacos.

Food truck gathering at San Diego Comic Con 2011

Food Trucks: Dispatches and Recipes from the Best Kitchens on Wheels is a great book that goes over the short history of food trucks and covers some delicious recipes from iconic food trucks around the country!

There are some great food trucks in the area that you can try:

A Moveable Feast in Lodi

The Cupcake Lady in Turlock
Off the Grid in San Francisco is a weekly gathering of food trucks. The biggest gathering is on Friday nights at the Presidio. 

Sometimes the food IS the destination. Follow your taste buds to your next adventure! 

Bon appétit !! 

Rena 

Book Bucket List | The Great Gatsby

Pretty much everyone had to read F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby at some point for one English class or another.  Personally, in high school, I didn't completely appreciate it.  However, after recently rereading it, I was able to see it in a whole new light.  Set within the excess, debauchery, and scandal of the 1920's, the novel follows the lives and relationships of young people who have more money than they know what to do with.  What I really loved about this book this time around, was how far the main character, Jay Gatsby, was willing to go to simply get the attention of the girl he loved.  What he does to become the man he thinks he should be may or may not have been even legal, but the way Fitzgerald creates this character for me at least, is unforgettable. Once Gatsby finally achieves his goal, the drama that unfolds is truly heartbreaking.

This book is also being made into a movie as we speak!  Though the release date was pushed back from this Christmas all the way to May 10, 2013, we will get to see Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, and Carey Mulligan as the lead cast in what looks to be a truly spectacular movie directed by Moulin Rouge's Baz Luhrmann.  You can see the trailer for that here or below!  Read the book, see the movie (eventually), and let me know what you think!

Learning | Change of Seasons

"I feel like I'm wearing my back-to-school clothes," a grinning customer said. I had just complimented her on the beautiful sweater set she was wearing.  It was late September, and it was--at last!--a bit chilly outside. 

Remember the excitement of shopping for back-to-school clothes in the sweltering days of late summer? Most of the stores offer an enticing selection of long-sleeved, heavier clothes that are more suited to fall.  It can be frustrating, waiting for appropriate weather to wear them for the first time.

The library has a wide selection of books related to this season, both entertaining and educational. There are books on making costumes, crafts, or seasonal food; of course we have a wide selection of fall and Halloween-related fiction, which range from silly to scary. 

For a little learning fun, try Stephen Schnur's picture book,  Autumn: an Alphabet Acrostic. It has clever riddles; the first letter of each line spells out a relevant word. Schnur and illustrator Leslie Evans have a series of acrostic picture books matching seasons throughout the year.

Consider making up your own acrostic riddles with your family or students!