Riding with Rita

Still driving and listening.

I am adding a feature to my brief reviews, which I call the Zone-Out factor. One Z is the most compelling (because I find myself occasionally zoning out even with the best of them) and four Z’s the most likely to cause me to compose my weekend to-do list while listening. Yet I have found that the recorded format can be enjoyed between Z’s. Even the most difficult to listen to books leave me with new insights.

A Crack in the Edge of the World, by Simon Winchester read by the Author
ZZZZ
This book is about the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. It is long and very technical. There is a lot of geography and a lot of geology. But the chapter which describes the immediate response to that catastrophe by local and Federal agencies is what I found to be most interesting. It brought to mind the Katrina devastation, and the comparison is sadly shocking. They did a lot better in 1906.

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War, by Nathaniel Philbrick read by George Guidall
Z
Fabulous! It begins by describing the organization of the expedition to the New World, the voyage, the establishment of Plymouth Colony, and the Pilgrims’ relations with the natives. It fleshes out the popular myths we all learned in school. So what happened between then and the Revolution? After fifty years of relatively peaceful coexistence, mistrust and intolerance exploded into a brutal war between the colonists and the natives- King Philip’s War. The book describes the descent into war in great detail, and therein lie many lessons for today.

Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness and the Fair that Changed America, by Erik Larson read by Scott Brick
Z
Here we have two books in one. The narrative alternates between a history of the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 and the story of America’s first serial killer. Talk about “two Americas”! We get a glimpse of the opulence of the Gilded Age and the economic depression that followed. I loved this book, and in order to visualize the scope and beauty of the Exposition I recommend a visit to the following websites:
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/1893fair.html
http://www.chicagohs.org/history/expo/map.html
You can check out the serial killer here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._H._Holmes

Please check our home page http://hhhl.suffolk.lib.ny.us/ for the latest CD and downloadable audiobooks.

NextReads, for what to read next

New Books, Old Favorites and Buried Treasures

Exciting New Email Service Brings the Library to You

 

We are pleased to announce the introduction of a new email book newsletter service, calledNextReads. No library card is necessary—just an email address—to subscribe to any of the 20 different subject and genre newsletters. List topics range from Biography and Memoir to Fantasy, are sent on a monthly or every other month basis, and include up to 15 titles. Subscribers can link directly to the library catalog from books of interest on the lists, and place a hold or request a title immediately. Even those library patrons without email addresses can take advantage of the lists by viewing them online, either at the library or from any Internet access point.

We’ve got a special sneak preview for you blog readers out there. Click on the “subscribe” link below to get started. Give us some feedback and let us know if you like this service.

Subscribe

GIANT book sale

Have you visited our January Book Sale?

It was a very well attended event. A couple of thousand books and videos found a new home.
If you missed it, don’t despair.  We are already planning another Book Sale in May.  Hundreds of books and videos will be up for sale again and we hope to see you that day!

Alicja Feitzinger, Assistant Director

Remembrance of Things Past

Call us heretical, but we’ve always said that our book discussions are far more interesting than the books we read. While discussing Unless by Carol Shields, a forty year old, long suppressed memory of mine surfaced… a classmate of mine in Hunter College had self immolated in front of the United Nations as a protest against the Viet Nam war. Apparently this memory was so far buried that I could not even remember his name. I “Googled” the event which provided his name…. Roger LaPorte. Feeling frustrated, I asked Chris Garland for help. He managed to retrieve a New York Times article and the name of a person who worked at the Catholic Worker along with Roger all those years ago. After contacting the Catholic Worker, I was sent original newspapers which dealt with the subject of his suicide and its moral implications. From there I was connected with a woman who worked alongside him when he fed the homeless and the indigent; she is hoping to publish a book about Roger. The gentle young man in my French class became a reality and I have been allowed to both mourn him and celebrate his brief life.

Although Unless did not deal with the subject of suicide, it did deal with the theme of loss; perhaps this is what struck that chord in me.

Maggie DeLollis

No printer? No problem!

We’ve just started a new service – remote access printing. This means if you’re in the library on a wireless laptop and need to print, no more trying to negotiate between your computer and our wired Internet stations. Now there’s a link (starting next week!) on our home page for you to click, which will let you send a print job over the Internet to our printer by the Dix Hills Circulation Desk. Nice! And you can use the same link at home, if your printer is broken or unavailable for any reason. Click on the button, send the print job over the ‘net, and pick it up at the library.

Click on the button above for details.

MyLibraryTV – will it get here too late?

from slashdot:

“The Associated Press is reporting that today movie studios have approved Sonic Solutions’ technology Qflix, which allows people to download movies and burn them to DVDs that include CSS, the method of encryption that protects all pre-recorded DVDs sold today. According to a press release issued by Sonic Solutions, they will be demoing the technology by appointment at the Consumer Electronics Show on January 8th. Apparently the DVDs will also be subject to DRM restrictions placed by download services such as limiting the times a movie can be played back and how many times the movie can be burned. Is this the death of NetFlix as we know it? Interestingly enough, the AP article mentions burning kiosks in the future and the Sonic release mentions Walgreen’s as a partner, so maybe DVD burning is coming to a drug store near you. Sonic Solutions is the owner of Roxio, which produces a well-known CD and DVD burning software suite.”