Reader's Advisory

Get ready for the 2012 Oscars with the Brookfield Library?

• Have you entered 2012 Oscars Challenge? The person whose picks are closest to Academy's will win a copy of this year's Best Picture!

• Sign up to come see the The Help (4 nominations) at the Library on Saturday February 13th at 1:00pm.

• We wil have Oscar Nominees and Winners past and present on display in the Library! 

It was a big year for big-screen adaptations as six of the nine Oscar Nominees for Best Picture (Hugo, The Descendants, The Help, War Horse, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and Moneyball) were based on books. Some interesting notes about the list is that there are two first time novelists on it (Kaui Hart Hemmings and Kathryn Stockett), it contains for the second time in three years a Michael Lewis non-fiction sports book (The Blind Side, 2010), and the first time since 1940 there are novels by two female authors nominated (Gone with the Wind and Wurthering Heights).

Continue on to see all the Oscar Nominated books and to put your request in for their DVD counterparts.

“It was an age of miracle, it was an age of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire.”
-F. Scott Fitzgerald – Echoes of the Jazz Age

Set roughly in the decade between the end of WWI and the collapse of the Stock Market in 1929, the Jazz Age (coined by F. Scott Fitzgerald) was a era mythologized in American culture. It was a time of speakeasies and gangsters; the Charleston and Prohibition; bathtub gin and dance halls croning out African-American music to a young white socialite crowd. During this period the United States was introduced to the "Flapper Girl", a newly liberated, flaming youth, characterized her socially defiant bobbed haircut, rich makeup and baggy dresses, along with the radio, accessible automobiles, and Harlem Jazz Clubs. It was also a time where Paris became a hot-bed for artists looking for inspiration and collaboration. Writers, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, could be found discussing their craft in bars, while Gertrude Stein critiqued the works of Dali, Matisse, and Picasso at her apartment. In the corners of clubs, Cole Porter could be found crooning out hits such as "C’est Magnifique" and "Let's Do It" near a dimly lit piano. All-in-all the Jazz Age still remains an era of time immortalized in the American psyche through fiction. From the works of the time period like Fitzgerald's Jazz Age Stories and Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises to the recent blockbusters, The Paris Wife and Midnight in Paris, the Jazz Age will forever be a staple of eloquence, liberation, creation, and hedisom that took hold of the United States during the 1920s. For more on the Jazz Age, check out some of these books which capture an era long gone. 

Check out one of the staff's favorite books from 2011:

     Britta             Katie             Kate         Kim&Louise      Christy           Matt               Toni             Debbie

As we all know, there are many great movies out there that started out as great books.  Check out our lineup of books that were recently released as a movie or are coming out soon. So whether you read the book before, or after you see the movie you'll have some inspiration for your reading list.

Did you enter the world of Le Cirque des Rêves and never want to leave?

In, Emily Morgenstern’s, The Night Circus, young magicians Celia and Marco, enter into a mysterious competition set up by their mercurial guardians. The challenge is set through the venue of the circus and the rules are not defined. As the two competitors face off, their creations become performances which are wondrous, exhibits that are mysterious, and attractions beyond this world. If you found yourself enchanted with the Night Circus and want to find some more books similar to it, then check out some of these titles.

In Stacy Carlson’s historical novel, Among the Wonderful, you can watch the P.T. Barnum’s makeover of the circus from glassed-in exhibits to wonderful stage performers, animals and wonders. Carlson captures how the magical setting of the circus in enhanced through fan interactions and participation as well as mood enhancing illusions. If you found yourself fascinated by the side performers and the everyday dealings of Le Cirque des Rêves, then you may want to check out The Circus in Winter, by Cathy Day. However, if it was the magic and the magician competitions of The Night Circus that drew you in, then check out Susanna Clarke’s, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norwell. Similar to Morgenstern, Clarke sets up a magic and a magic history that is somewhat explained through tomes and glyphs but still remains mysterious, secretive, and elusive. In Daniel Wallace’s, Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician, the life of a downtrodden illusionist (similar to Celia’s father, Prospero) and the secret to his magic is uncovered after he disappears. Maybe it is the actual history of the circus and circus performers that you are interested in, if so check out Circus Mania, by Douglas McPherson. If the love story gave you goosebumps, then the circus-based tale, Water for Elephants, and the fantastic-based, Kingdom of Ohio, might be up your alley.

You can find the Night Circus along with any of these tales in the Library today, or you can continue reading for a full plot description of all of the titles listed below.

September 24 through October 1, 2011, the American Library Association and libraries across the country will be celebrating Banned Books Week, a week long celebration of the First Ammendment and our right to read freely.

Many beloved books from classics to modern tales have caused scandal at one point or another.  Celebrate your right to read freely by checking out these or other banned, censored, or challened titles.  For further inspiration, check out the ALA's list of Books Challenged or Banned in 2010-2011.

Authors of noir fiction, such as James Ellroy and George Pelecanos,  paint a vivid and gritty scene, where the sex and violence happen in full detail on the page.  Authors of "rural noir" have rural settings and characters, and have made their mark in recent books and movies:

Canning and preserving fruits and vegetables is a great way to ensure your family eats healthy all year long.  Check out these great resources to learn more:

Were you a fan of Rise of the Planet of the Apes? If you were maybe then you would like to check out some of these titles that involve animal experimentation that went too far and is now out of control, revolting animals who unsubjugate themselves from humans control, and worlds whom barely survive a man-made Apocalypse.

Continue Reading for a full description of all the titles listed below.

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.  The Night Circus is projected to be THE BOOK of the fall.  Read it & see if you agree.