Local Author on blogtalkradio

A Book and a Chat blog radio recently interviewed Aaron Paul Lazar from Geneseo, NY. Lazar does the Gus LeGarde and Moore Mystery series. He has been at Wood Library several times at book fairs, YouTube interviews and Books Sandwiched In. Listen to the interview here.

Borrow Aaron Paul Lazar's newest book Mazurka.

Books to Movies: The Road

The movie version of Cormac McCarthy's bestseller, Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Road (2006), will be released on November 25. What's it about? A father and son wander through a post-apocalyptic world.  To read or re-read the book, click here and place a hold at Wood Library or an OWWL library near you. Also available on audio CD. Watch the movie trailer at Hulu.com or watch it below. The movie is nowhere to be found in local theaters yet, but perhaps it will make it to The Little. If the big theater version doesn't go well, see it soon on DVD.

Writers for Literacy Book Launch

On Tuesday March 31, 2009 at 7:00 PM until 8:30 PM Writers for Literacy, a volunteer project at Wood Library, will celebrate the publication of Story Pot Luck, an anthology of sixteen stories written by local authors for adult literacy learners. The group hopes that the high interest, low vocabulary stories will encourage new adult readers to read for pleasure. The book launch event is open to the public as well as by invitation. Refreshments will be served. Drop by and meet the authors.

Members of Writers for Literacy are: Carmella Battaglia, Mazy Carson, Carol Creswell, Steve Donner, Karen Mount, Annette Mrozak, Jean Trost and Jewel Wink. The audio CD version is read by Michelle Caward and Kathy Morris. Steve Donner illustrated the book with cartoon style full color drawings. The anthology was funded by contributions from Wood Library Café, Bloomfield Rotary, and several anonymous donations.

Complimentary copies of the book and audio CD will be placed at Literacy Volunteer sites in Ontario, Wayne, Wyoming and Livingston counties and in eight libraries in the Pioneer Library System that provide literacy services, materials, and tutoring rooms. Libraries receiving copies are: Bloomfield (compliments of Bloomfield Rotary), Geneva, Macedon, Pioneer Library System Headquarters, Wadsworth, Warsaw, Williamson, and Wood Library. Story Pot Luck will be available to readers and tutors at other libraries by interlibrary loan. Copies of the book will be presented at book launch party.

Writers for Literacy members were recently interviewed for Read Locally, a local writers series on Wood Library's YouTube channel. You can watch it here or go to the Wood Library YouTube site.

Canandaigua Reads!

This month Canandaigua Reads! Jim the Boy and The Blue Star by Tony Earley. Here's the scoop from Canandaigua Reads! on the Canandaigua School District website:

"Great things happen when all Canandaigua Reads!, the annual community reads project when our whole community is invited to read and discuss a single book. Well, usually it's a single book. But this year, it's two novels...and again we are excited to have the author coming to town! The 2009 Canandaigua Reads! selections are Jim the Boy and The Blue Star by Tony Earley. The two novels form a nearly continuous coming-of-age story of a boy named Jim. Spare, intimate, quietly moving, the two novels reveal a very normal boy from southern Appalachia, raised by his Mom and three uncles, who sees his world slowly unfold around him, and the currents of his family's past and the wider world slowly ensnare him. Please join us. Read Jim the Boy and The Blue Star! Canandaigua Reads! is a partnership of Wood Library, Canandaigua's Community Reading Partnership, Finger Lakes Community College, and the Canandaigua City School District."

Both books may be borrowed from Wood Library and may be purchased at Wegmans and other area bookstores. When you purchase your copies online at Wood Library's aStore at Amazon.com, Wood Library earns a 10% commission. Look in the "Book Discussions" section.

Register for Oprah's Book Club Webcast

Have you noticed--everybody seems to be reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. Now you can discuss it at the world's biggest book club discussion on January 26! Join Oprah and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle author David Wroblewski for a live, one-night-only webcast Monday, January 26, at 9 p.m. From the characters' tangled relationships to your own amazing dog story, anything and everything is up for discussion. Don't miss out on joining the world's biggest book discussion—register for this Oprah's Book Club event today! Barbara Henry, Adult Services Librarian at Wood Library, says "I registered already and I hope you will join in. Call 394-1381 to put a hold on a copy or purchase your own copy at Wood Library aStore where your purchase earns the library a commission."

Gift of Reading

How do you celebrate the holidays? Food? Toys? Gifts galore? Frantic shopping sprees? How about--books and reading!

This morning National Public Radio aired a heart-warming story about making books and reading a holiday tradition for your family. Make this the year you give the gift of reading. Listen in.....

Make Wood Library your holiday book center. Drop in and borrow!

64 Years Overdue

We've all had a few overdue books in our lives. 20 cents here, a dollar or two there. Well, what would you do if you had a book out that is now overdue for more than a half century? Read the heart warming story about 11 year old John Orser who borrowed a book from Wood Library back in 1944. Things were different back then. A different war was being waged around the world. Wood Library was located at the Ontario County Historical Society at 55 Main Street. The Chinese Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins was a favorite book among children. Over the years, Orser moved on and somehow never returned the book. Now 75, Orser recently decided to make things right. Read about it in this Messenger Post article.

Above: The book John Orser borrowed in 1944.

New Book Discussion Programs

One of the best things libraries do is book discussion groups. Wood Library invites participation in two new book discussions. Get started now reading or listening to these November book discussion opportunities.

The Shawl Big Read Book Discussion
Wood Library teams up with Writers & Books in Rochester to sponsor a Big Read book discussion of Cynthia Ozick's classic novella The Shawl. The book follows Rosa's survival of the Holocaust to her life in Florida 30 years later. The first ten readers to sign up will be guaranteed a copy to borrow. Drop by the Main Floor Desk or call 394-1381 to sign up and get a book. Meet in the Community Room at Wood Library for discussion on Monday November 10 at 7:00 PM. Professor Michael Dobkowski from Hobart and William Smith Colleges will lead the discussion. Go to the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read Shawl site for discussion guide and author information.

Digital Audio Book Club
All digital. Always available. It's revolutionary--a book club with no book holds and no waiting! Wood Library's Digital Audio Book Club is a book club that uses OWWL2go.org for downloadable book selections that are always available to an unlimited number of multiple users. Participants must hold a valid OWWL library card and register by calling Wood Library at 585-394-1381 or by emailing Barbara Henry, Adult Services Librarian, at bhenry@pls-net.org. Oct-Nov 2008 Audio selection is The Year of Fog by Michelle Redmond Meeting: Nov 17, 2008 7pm. Go to the Digital Audio Book Club for more details on how it works http://wood-digibkclub.blogspot.com/

Audio Book Clips in Your Email

Love audiobooks? Then sign up for the Chapter a Day newsletter. Each day’s e-mail includes a link to a 30-minute audio clip from the popular Wisconsin Public Broadcasting program Chapter a Day. Listen to the program at your convenience — it’s an easy way to read a chapter a day! Sign up on the OWWL Newsletter Sign Up Page. Scroll down to "Chapter a Day", check the box and type in your email address at the bottom of the page. Click the subscribe button. This free service is provided by Pioneer Library System and the 42 OWWL libraries. Books link into the OWWL catalog for more details and to place holds. Next: Monday September 15 through Friday October 2, 2008 A Sound Like Thunder by Sonny Brewer read by Karl Schmidt.

What Did You Read This Summer?

You did it in the car, on the beach, on the trail, in a hammock and on the front porch. Where ever you were this summer you were reading. Book Buzz wants to know what you read this summer.

Summer's the traditional time of year to catch up on some reading. Did you read a book that really got you going? You had to tell all your friends? How about a novel you would put on the best-seller list?

Here's your chance to click the "comments" below and help create Wood Library's Summer 2008 Best-Read List.

Book Buzz

This new Book Buzz comes from Adult Services Librarian Barbara Henry who is currently on vacation. Barbara writes, "Hello. It's a great summer for reading. I've got three books going all at once. Help! Two are being read for a book discussion group. The other is for pure pleasure. I will tell you about that one--it is a marriage of archaeology and mystery, two favorite themes of mine. The book is Grave Consequences (Emma Fielding Mysteries, No. 2) by Dana Cameron. Emma Fielding, an American archaeologist, goes to England to help a colleague with a dig in an ancient cemetery at an old medieval abbey. But not all the burials are ancient. Some have marks of very recent activity. While investigating the site, a dig crew member is found dead in a nearby skip (British for dumpster). Couple that with strange New Age characters, a young female vicar, and ley lines for a satisfying mystery that just won't give up its secrets until the end. By the way, Dana Cameron, the author, is a real live practicing archaeologist. She brings a lot of authenticity to each page. I highly recommend Grave Consequences if you like your mysteries with a timeline twist. Go to the OWWL catalog to take a look at Grave Consequences and place a hold. Happy summer reading. See you in August."

Book Buzz

Jessica Cutting, a member of the Wood Library staff, recommends The Things They Carried, an earlier work of fiction by Tim O'Brien. Jessica says: "This compilation of stories reflects O'Brien's experiences in the Vietnam War. Throughout the book, O'Brien conveys a sense of what it was actually like for the soldiers during the war. They experienced pain and suffering of the acutest kind: friends dying, having to kill other men, trying to say alive under the worst conditions, and even fight with themselves to find a reason to stay alive. It is easy to forget this is historical fiction."

National Book Award winner Tim O'Brien chose to share his war experience as fiction because he felt it was more emotionally powerful. Vietnam and the 1960s are frequent themes in O'Briens other books. Get details on The Things They Carried in the OWWL catalog or place a hold.

Book Buzz

Dark Trends in Romance

Think romance heroes are limited to cool cowboys, dashing dukes and hunky highwaymen? Then you probably haven’t been to the romance section of the library lately.

Those tried-and-true tropes have given way to darker imaginings. Vampires, demons, shape-shifting werewolves and other supernatural creatures are the hottest things going in romance and women’s fiction, thanks to groundbreaking writers like Sherrilyn Kenyon and Laurell K. Hamilton. Romance stalwarts like Nora Roberts, Linda Lael Miller and Teresa Medeiros have come out with paranormal series in recent years, and the trend has continued into teen fiction with books like Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling Twilight series. Give it a try—if you dare. Get more details or place a hold for Sherrilyn Kenyon's Devil May Cry. Watch for Book Buzz each week. Content supplied by BookPage.com.