Reading Room Blog

What is is about Jane Austen?  If you have read her books over and over and over, maybe you are ready to try something a little different.  Her stories have been re-told and re-imagined in prequels and sequels and in various time periods and settings.  Her characters even make literary appearances as zombies and vampires.  Browse our new booklist, Jane Austen Over and Over and Over.

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

Childhood is too precious a part of life to lose before we have to, but our popular culture all too often yanks our little people out of their innocence. Here is a poem by Trish Crapo, of Leyden, Massachusetts, that captures a moment of that innocence.

Back Then

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

I love the way the following poem by Susie Patlove opens, with the little rooster trying to “be what he feels he must be.” This poet lives in Massachusetts, in a community called Windy Hill, which must be a very good place for chickens, too.

Poor Patriarch

 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer is charming and comprised of letters. Epistolary fiction is one of my favorite literary devices. If you liked this book, you may also like:

Which Brings Me to You by Steve Almond and Julianna Baggott

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

Love predated the invention of language, but love poetry got its start as soon as we had words through which to express our feelings. Here’s a lovely example of a contemporary poem of love and longing by George Bilgere, who lives in Ohio.

Night Flight

Though as a librarian I'm constantly reading new books and other materials, I, like most people, have those books to which I turn time and again.  I know exactly how they're going to end, I know most of the plot details, and I feel I have a close, personal connection with the protagonists.  Some of these I have read to the point that the cover has torn away, but I keep them anyway. Why?  Because I love them dearly.  

Most of my favorite novels are science fiction or cyberpunk.  Probably my favorite of all these books is Accelerando by Charles Stross, in which the transition of mankind from biological lifeform to almost purely informational and back again is deeply influenced by three generations of the same family across several centuries.  Its follow-up, Glasshouse, is set in the same universe, but rather than focusing on the future of humanity, this book sets its main characters in a far-future simulation of what twentieth century life was like; its extrapolation of modern life as viewed by our long-removed descendents is endlessly fascinating. 

The second movie in the Twilight saga, New Moon, hits theaters this Friday, November 20.

Check out this movie review in the Washington Post.

Join Edward, Bella, and Jacob in READing a good book! Check out all things Twilight, or maybe something from our Books With Bite book list.

For more young adult titles check out our Fang Fiction or Werewolves Among Us book list.

The 2009 National Book Awards have been announced. The winners are:

Fiction

Winner: Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin

Finalists: Bonnie Jo Campbell, American Salvage
Daniyal Mueenuddin, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
Jayne Anne Phillips, Lark and Termite
Marcel Theroux, Far North