A Magical Wordsmith and a Kaleidescoping Artist

Mon, 10/03/2016 - 2:31pm by mansii

What happens when one of the most cherished children's authors of all time gets written about by one of the most creative book illustrators of all time? You get Some Writer! The Story of E.B. White. Caldecott winning artist Melissa Sweet, who creates unique scrap-booked worlds of kaleidoscopic color, depicts the creator of Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little in a biography written for the young, but treasured by all.

E.B. White is known as a wordsmith like no other, using one choice phrase to paint whole, vivid pictures. His works are fantastical, blending the impossible with the ordinary so smoothly that we might easily believe he paints the real world while we are the ones dreaming. His characters may not aggrandize wealth or change the world, but they are rich in kindness, brave in friendship, and they transform homesteads and barns into places of hope and joy. Given the stamp of approval by White’s grand-daughter Martha White, Sweet reveals how White's three novels and numerous writings for the New Yorker came to be. She pays special attention to how the details of White's "real life" shaped the fictional worlds he spun. Especially with the numerous photographs, illustrations from the original books, letter excerpts, and draft excerpts that Sweet includes, reading this book feels like meeting a friend.

Melissa Sweet's illustrations are filled with details you can linger over, and images that have an atmospheric quality that let's you immerse yourself in White's world. Her words celebrate a man who had an appreciation for the miracles of nature, a reverence for life, and a passion to tell straight what bubbles out of ones heart, without trying to please the crowds.

Advent Reflections from Michigan's Northern Woods with Author Gayle Boss

Saturday November 12, 2016: 4:00pm to 5:00pm
Pittsfield Branch: Program Room

Organize your clothing with The Curated Closet

Mon, 09/26/2016 - 5:27pm by eapearce

If you’re anything like me, you often find yourself staring into an overstuffed closet while also thinking “I have nothing to wear!” Anuschka Rees is here to help with that exact problem in her brand new book The Curated Closet. Rees offers tips and tricks for building a wardrobe that is functional, fits in the space that one has to contain it, and suits the reader’s personal style. It was the style cultivation aspects of The Curated Closet that I found most helpful; for those of us who are attracted to a variety of pieces, determining what we really like and what really suits us can be a challenge. Rees offers great tips for discovering your own personal style, and explains how to productively shop for pieces that won’t end up buried in the back of your closet in a few months’ time. The Curated Closet is even complete with a “closet diagnostics” flow chart that maximizes organization and “garment assessment” advice, which teaches readers how to find out if a piece of clothing is well-made. And, what better time of year to attack your closet than now, as we put away the shorts and tank tops and bring out the sweaters?

For other books on closet and clothing organization try Shop Your Closet and Home Organizing & Closet Makeovers.

Washtenaw Reads Book Discussion: "$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America"

Sunday February 12, 2017: 3:00pm to 4:30pm
Westgate Branch: West Side Room
Grade 9–Adult

Washtenaw Reads Book Discussion: "$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America"

Wednesday January 25, 2017: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room
Grade 9 - Adult

Settling Into Fall With Quietly Suspenseful Reads

Fri, 09/23/2016 - 3:44pm by eapearce

Perhaps you recently read The Girl on the Train, in preparation for seeing the soon-to-be-released movie version and are wondering where to turn next to get that tingly feeling of suspense that a mind-bending mystery offers. Or perhaps you’re still looking for something as good as Gone Girl to blow your reading mind. Or maybe you just like to read suspenseful stories in autumn, as I do, and are looking for the perfect one to kick off the season. No matter what the reasoning, the AADL has a slew of great psychological mysteries to send chills up your spine:

In All the Missing Girls, by Megan Miranda, Nicolette returns to her hometown after ten years away to care for her ailing father. She’d left a decade ago after her best friend disappeared without a trace. The ensuing investigation focused on Nic, her boyfriend, her brother and Corinne’s boyfriend, and since then Nic is the only one who’s left town. When another girl goes missing just days after Nic’s return, she’s determined to figure out what’s going on—and hopefully find out what really happened to Corinne so long ago. The story is told backwards from the date that the girl disappears which makes all the shocking truths that are revealed even more surprising, and plays tricks on the mind that will delight even the most unflappable of readers.

Unbecoming, written by Rebecca Sherm and published last year, offers readers a seemingly tragic story: after two men that she loves attempt to rob a historical mansion and land in prison, a woman flees to Paris to try and start a new life away from them and their memory. Living under an assumed identity and working in a shady antiques-repair shop, readers follow along as her lies unravel and the truth behind her past, the heist and her future plans come to light. Fans of The Girl on the Train will enjoy this one in particular.

Lisa Jewell paints an initially idyllic scene in The Girls in the Garden, of a picturesque communal park in urban London, but the image is quickly shattered when a girl finds her sister’s potentially lifeless body among the rose bushes. The book backs up from this moment, introducing us to the sisters and telling the story of how they and their single mother came to live in one of the small flats by the park. As we make it forward to the night of the attack, readers are introduced to a series of suspicious characters and find out about the disappearance of another teenaged girl who lived by the park twenty years before. Are the crimes linked? Or have two separate criminals graced the park with their presences?

Emerging Writers: Writing and Review Meet-Up

Monday November 27, 2017: 7:00pm to 8:45pm
Westgate Branch: West Side Room
Grade 6 - Adult

Emerging Writers Workshop: A Writer’s Best Practices

Monday November 6, 2017: 7:00pm to 8:45pm
Westgate Branch: West Side Room
Grade 6 - Adult

Emerging Writers: Writing and Review Meet-Up

Monday October 16, 2017: 7:00pm to 8:45pm
Westgate Branch: West Side Room
Grade 6 - Adult

Emerging Writers Workshop: Writing and Publishing Children’s Nonfiction

Monday October 2, 2017: 7:00pm to 8:45pm
Westgate Branch: West Side Room
Grade 6 - Adult