Do you want to start a book group or are you already in a group but are having trouble getting books for your group? The Utah State Library will now help you get books. Visit their site for a list of books they carry or to suggest a title. They lend books to groups, libraries, organizations, schools, community centers, and/or book clubs meeting in a public place and is free to participants. They have recently decided that they will also furnish books for clubs meeting in a home. They do request that the books be sent back and forth through library services. Their newest titles include: The Help, Unbroken, Hunger Games, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
Everyone is raving about Emily Giffin and "Something Borrowed"!
"Emily Giffin brings a fresh, new voice to women's fiction. "Something Borrowed" is a deftly written and convincing tale of a friendship gone comically---and at times poignantly---awry."
- Meg Cabot, author of "The Boy Next Door" and "The Princess Diaries"
""Something Borrowed" is a winner; it has rare emotional depth. In "Something Borrowed," Rachel, a perpetually self-sacrificing nice girl, shocks herself by launching an affair with her best friend's fiance. This first blow for freedom sets off a chain reaction that will inspire pathologically nice girls everywhere to strike blows of their own."
- Valerie Frankel, author of "The Accidental Virgin"
""Something Borrowed" by Emily Giffin is a luxurious page-turner of a debut novel that marks the arrival of a tremendously bright, clever new voice in women's fiction. In quick-moving, captivating prose punctuated with dead-on dialogue, Giffin deftly captures the complications and humor of love, betrayal, career, and friendship for a city girl at the edge of thirty; you forget this is just a novel and won't want to put it down."
- Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, author of "The Dirty Girls Social Club" and "Playing with Boys"
"I absolutely loved it and read it in two sittings because I could not put it down. It was amazing to me how Emily handled this complex moral issue with such compassion and clear-sightedness. I believed it all the way and forgot about the rest of my life while I was immersed in it. Her three main characters are portrayed as multifaceted and endearingly flawed---just like real human beings. Something Borrowed is also very well written---nice, spare prose, which kept me pressing forward, agog to know what happened. This is a book which takes a clear-eyed look at the rivalry that exists in even the best of friendships. Congratulations to Emily on having written such a compelling, engrossing, and uplifting book."
- Marian Keyes, author of "Sushi for Beginners" …More
From the "New York Times"-bestselling author of "Something Borrowed"--now a major motion picture opening on June 10--comes a novel that shows how someone with a "perfect life" can lose it all--and then find everything. Martin's Griffin. …More
Ever since their first date, when Claudia and Ben both admitted they had no desire for children, their courtship and marriage seemed destined--and then Ben changes his mind: He does want children, after all. This story is about what happens to the perfect couple when they have to face the unexpected twists of a relationship. …More
From the blockbuster bestselling author of "Something Borrowed, Something Blue" and "Baby Proof" comes an emotionally charged work about a chance encounter that forces one woman to question her decisions, her marriage, and herself. …More
Heart of the Matter ByGiffin, Emily 2010-05 - St. Martin's Press 9780312554163CHECK CATALOGBookPage Notable Title
In alternating points of view, a "New York Times"-bestselling author tells a story of three good people caught in an untenable triangle, each questioning everything they once believed about love and loyalty. And each, ultimately, discovering what is truly at the heart of the matter. …More
Unbeknownst to her identical twin Bennie Rosato, Alice Connelly is on the run from her drug-dealing confederates who are trying to kill her. Alice sees only one way out--to become Bennie. Now Bennie must prove who she really is, while Alice ruins her life. …More
The library is now offering online book clubs. What exactly does that mean, you might ask. Well, when you sign-up for a club you'll be introduced to a new book every week by receiving a 5-minute read in your e-mail Monday-Friday. By the time the week's finished you've usually read the first 2-3 chapters of the book.
After you've started the book in your e-mail you can decide if you'd like to finish it or not. If you'd like to, just check the library's catalog. If we don't have it, you can always request that we get a copy. There are also online discussions to join if you want to chat with others about the book you're reading - and it's a national chat, several of which will include the book's author.
If you decide it's not your kind of book, just wait till the next Monday and a new book will be coming.
The clubs sometimes even post notes about a book's content at the start of each 5-minute read. For example, this note appeared right before the read on one of last weeks titles: *This book contains adult language.
There's 12 clubs to choose from and you can sign up for as many or a few as you'd like. This weeks books include:
From the author of the "New York Times"-bestselling novel "Labyrinth" comes another haunting tale of secrets, murder, and the occult set in both 19th-century and 21st-century France....More
From the critically acclaimed author comes another hilarious mystery featuring penniless aristocrat Lady Georgie, a feisty new heroine to delight a legion of Anglophile readers (Jacqueline Winspear)....More
The Crimson Thread: A Retelling of "Rumpelstiltskin" ByWeyn, Suzanne 2008/06 - Simon Pulse 9781416959434CHECK CATALOG
In the year 1880, Bertie O'Malley finds work as a seamstress in the home of textile tycoon J.P. Wellington. When the Wellington fortune is threatened, Bertie's father boasts that she can spin straw into gold, in this retelling of a classic fairy tale. Original....More
Dis was a harsh, inhospitable, dangerous place and the Magter made it worse. They might have been human once -- but they were something else now. The Magter had only one desire -- to kill everything, themselves, their planet, the universe if they could.
Brion Brandd was sent in at the eleventh hour. His mission was to save Dis, but it looked as though he was going to preside over its annihilation!...More
Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory ByRapkin, Mickey 2008/06 - Gotham Books 9781592403769CHECK CATALOG
"Pitch Perfect" takes a behind-the-scenes look at the sometimes bizarre, often inspiring world of collegiate a cappella groups. 8-page b&w photo insert....More
The summer of 1964 certainly was eventful, but it??'s nothing compared to what??'s coming to the Brooke family and to Hollyhill, Kentucky. David finally gets up the nerve to pop the question to Leigh and wedding plans are in the making. But the past is coming to call on many in Hollyhill, threatening to destroy the relationships that everyone thought were so strong. Two people???one David thought was gone for good and the other no one??'s ever heard of???are making their way to the small town and promise trouble. This complex and well-written story is the perfect conclusion to the Hollyhill story. With true-to-life family drama, refreshing humor, and lovable characters, Summer of Joy will delight readers....More
The definitive account of the most important government investigation of our time is delivered by the veteran "New York Times" reporter who covered the 9/11 commission from its creation. Abridged. 5 CDs....More
Determined to identify remains believed to be a victim of a convicted child murderer, FBI agent Portia Cahill joins forces with James Cannon, the attorney who once defended the killer, in this first novel in a new series. Original....More
Breakenridge introduces new PR best practices to use on the Web, including setting up online newsrooms, using visual and social media in releases, and leveraging new online research and analytic tools. She offers powerful new ways to think about PR and react to the new challenges the Web presents....More
Kathryn Havemann, a devoted reader who works as an indexing analyst at LexisNexis, with a listing of her own books on LibraryThing.com. Her personal stacks are behind her in her home in Dayton, Ohio.
By ANNE EISENBERG
Published: March 4, 2007
WHEN many people think of online social networking, they picture Web sites where the young and the restless discuss their love lives and their favorite bands. But Kathryn Havemann, 60, of Dayton, Ohio, has joined a different sort of Web-based network — one where people are linked by a more sedate interest: their book collections.
“I would never put my life out on the Internet,” she said, “except through my books.”
Social networks that tap the interests and buying power of traditionally reserved groups like the bookish are a small but growing force on the Web. Ms. Havemann, for example, is among the 150,000 or so members of LibraryThing (www.LibraryThing.com), a site that lets people create detailed online book catalogs, learn about the collections of other members, discover shared favorites and swap recommendations.
Creating a catalog on the Web site is easy. Enter the title of one of your books, and the search engine supplies the rest of the details, like the International Standard Book Number, or ISBN, and a thumbnail image of the cover. Click again, and list the next item.
You can view or print your catalog instantly, sorted by author, for example, or by more personal tags like “books that mention Venice,” “books that touch on digital photography” or “books I’ve loaned out.” Collections can also be displayed by book covers.
Ms. Havemann, for instance, has catalogued all of the 2,956 volumes at her home, and no longer has to rely on hand-written notes or a spreadsheet. Now, as she collects new books — an unending and delightful process — she uses a portable bar-code scanner to accumulate their ISBNs, then downloads up to 500 entries at a time onto LibraryThing.
But the swift, accurate cataloguing of her books is not what she prizes most about LibraryThing.
“I love the social aspect,” she said.
Many social connections thrive at the site. Although members can keep all details of their online catalog private, most choose to display their libraries, so Ms. Havemann can learn about other members’ collections just as she might if she visited their homes.
For example, software on the site shows her who else among the members has the same titles she has. All the information is listed by user name, which does not have to be one’s real name; that means bookworms can remain anonymous while sharing the details of their collections. There are more than 1,500 discussion groups on the site, too, as well as shared information on the tags or descriptive words that members use to keep track of their books.
LibraryThing carries no advertising. It is supported by commissions from Amazon.com for books bought through the site, and by member fees. Registration is simple: just enter a user name and password, click on “Add books,” and begin.
The first 200 books can be catalogued free; after that, the cost is $10 a year or $25 for a lifetime membership. AbeBooks, an online bookseller, owns a 40 percent share in LibraryThing.
Other sites, too, including Shelfari and aNobii, are building online book cataloguing and social networking services.
Tim Spalding, founder and president of LibraryThing, which is based in Portland, Me., says that while the site was founded in 2005, it is still in what he calls “perpetual beta,” as the software is steadily being improved. “We plan on staying in beta,” he said. “It’s a sign of constant innovation.” So far, more than 10 million books have been catalogued there.
Mr. Spalding, who studied Greek and Latin as a graduate student and is now a Web site developer, wrote the software based on his own bibliographic interests. To compile data like publication dates for each catalog entry, the application searches Amazon, the Library of Congress and 70 other libraries that provide open access to their collections.
Based on data gathered at the site, Mr. Spalding has written programs that recommend books that members may want to read, or may want to skip, based on their own interests. For instance, he said, if you liked “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” by Thomas S. Kuhn, the program suggests that you are not likely to enjoy “The Virgin’s Lover” by Philippa Gregory.
One way that Mr. Spalding generates site statistics is by analyzing the tags or key words that people use to help them categorize and remember their books. For example, people cataloguing a new detective novel by Donna Leon might add tags like “Guido Brunetti” (the sleuth) or “Venice” (the setting).
When new members add a book by Ms. Leon to their catalogs, for example, all of the tags that others have used to classify the book appear automatically in the bibliographic data. Click on a tag, and it will lead to the user name of its creator, and in turn to that person’s other book choices.
In this way, people can explore one another’s book categories, as they might once have wandered the library stacks, hoping for unexpected finds.
TAGGING is also becoming important to the ways that Internet services raise money, said David L. Sifry, founder and chief executive of Technorati, a company in San Francisco that tracks the tags people use to mark items on the Internet — including those at photo- and video-sharing sites.
Mr. Sifry said advertisers of a product like automobiles will pay a premium of $50 to $150 above the base rate to have their names on a page that many readers have tagged with words related to “car.”
Mr. Spalding, too, plans to take advantage of the targeted-audience information created by tagging to generate revenue.
For example, he is in the process of selling some of his recommendations data, which is based in part on tagging statistics, to other sites that sell books and book information.
Ms. Havemann, who works an indexing analyst at LexisNexis, which offers sophisticated search services, uses tags at LibraryThing because they are helpful in jogging her memory of a specific book’s contents.
“One book can run into another,” she said, “but if I tag a book by a character’s name, for instance, I can remember the book later.” She also checks other people’s tags to see if she wants to add any of their books to her library.
“It’s wonderful,” she said, summing up her experience on the LibraryThing site, “to know there are many other crazy people out there who are absolutely addicted to books.”
Check out this website and catalog your own books at www.librarything.com
