Wednesday, February 25, 2015

New Audio Books Available Through Overdrive

The following audio books are now available through our Overdrive e-Book and Audio Collection.  To access the collection, use your full e-mail address when prompted for a password.  If you are interested in listening to or reading a book that is not currently in Overdrive contact Mrs. Rickert-Wilbur.

  • All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel (unabridged) National Book Award Finalist From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the beautiful, stunningly ambitious instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure's reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum's most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure's converge.
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe 
A lyrical novel about family and friendship from critically acclaimed author Benjamin Alire Sáenz.  Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship--the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be.
Everything I Never Told You
A haunting debut novel about a mixed-race family living in 1970s Ohio and the tragedy that will either be their undoing or their salvation
Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet ...
So begins the story in this exquisite debut novel about a Chinese American family living in a small town in 1970s Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee; their middle daughter, a girl who inherited her mother's bright blue eyes and her father's jet-black hair. Her parents are determined that Lydia will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue—in Marilyn's case that her daughter become a doctor rather than a homemaker, in James' case that Lydia be popular at school, a girl with a busy social life and the center of every party.
When Lydia's body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos. James, consumed by guilt, sets out on a reckless path that may destroy his marriage. Marilyn, devastated and vengeful, is determined to find a responsible party, no matter what the cost. Lydia's older brother, Nathan, is certain the neighborhood bad boy Jack is somehow involved. But it's the youngest of the family, Hannah, who observes far more than anyone realizes—and who may be the only one who knows the truth about what happened.
A profoundly moving story of family, history, and the meaning of home, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, exploring the divisions between cultures and the rifts within a family and uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.

Frog Music: A Novel (unabridged)
Emma Donoghue's explosive new novel, based on an unsolved murder.
Summer of 1876. San Francisco is in the fierce grip of a record-breaking heat wave and a smallpox epidemic. Through the window of a railroad saloon, a young woman called Jenny Bonnet is shot dead.
The survivor, her friend Blanche Beunon, is a French burlesque dancer. Over the next three days, she will risk everything to bring Jenny's murderer to justice—if he doesn't track her down first.
The story Blanche struggles to piece together is one of free-love bohemians, desperate paupers, and arrogant millionaires; of jealous men, icy women, and damaged children. It's the secret life of Jenny herself, a notorious character who breaks the law every morning by getting dressed: a charmer as slippery as the frogs she hunts.
In thrilling, cinematic style, Frog Music digs up a long-forgotten, never-solved crime. Full of songs that migrated across the world, Emma Donoghue's lyrical tale of love and bloodshed captures the pulse of a boomtown like no other.

One Hundred Years of Solitude
One of the twentieth century's enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize–winning career.
The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Rich and brilliant, it is a chronicle of life, death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the beautiful, ridiculous, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America. Love and lust, war and revolution, riches and poverty, youth and senility, the variety of life, the endlessness of death, the search for peace and truth—these universal themes dominate the novel. Alternately reverential and comical, One Hundred Years of Solitude weaves the political, personal, and spiritual to bring a new consciousness to storytelling. Translated into dozens of languages, this stunning work is no less than an account of the history of the human race.

The Secret History
The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.
In this brilliant debut novel, Donna Tartt gives us a richly textured and hypnotic story of golden youth corrupted by its own moral arrogance.
Richard Papen had never been to New England before his nineteenth year. Then he arrived at Hampeden College and quickly became seduced by the sweet, dark rhythms of campus life - in particular by an elite group of five students, Greek scholars, worldly, self-assured, and at first glance, highly unapproachable.
Yet as Richard was accepted and drawn into their inner circle, he learned a terrifying secret that bound them to one another...a secret about an incident in the woods in the dead of night where an ancient rite was brought to brutal life...and lead to a gruesome death. And that was just the beginning...

Friday, February 13, 2015

It's cold outside! Curl up with a good e-book.

This weekend why not try our new e-book platform, Overdrive? Overdrive is free to all Bryn Mawr students, faculty and staff. We have a solid collection of  fiction and non-fiction, and we can add new titles at your request.   Just go to Overdrive e-Book Collection and type in your e-mail address. Books download easily to most devices. 


 (The Martian is highly recommended by the Letri)

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Valentines Day Fun.



Recently, the Upper School Book Club and their advisor, Mr. Metsopoulos,  met in the Library to select some  favorite books for students and faculty. Each book was decorated with a Valentine's Day motif and placed on display to be checked out. Several of the students also wrapped books for the Middle School Book Match-Up Event. Book Match-Up is Ms. Hruban's twist on Blind Date with a Book. Over sixty girls participated  by requesting, matching and wrapping books. Many students stopped by this week  just to make Valentines for their friends and loved ones.





Monday, November 24, 2014

Looking for a Good Book?

This Thanksgiving take a little time to unwind with a good book. The Edith Hamilton Library has lots of new titles.   Stop by and check one out before taking off today!


Fiction

SC My YA My True Love Gave to Me : Twelve Holiday Stories.  If you love holiday stories, holiday movies, made-for-TV-holiday specials, holiday episodes of your favorite sitcoms and, especially, if you love holiday anthologies, you're going to fall in love with My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories by twelve bestselling young adult writers (Holly Black, Ally Carter, Matt de La Peña, Gayle Forman, Jenny Han, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Myra McEntire, Rainbow Rowell, Stephanie Perkins, Laini Tayler and Kiersten White), edited by the international bestselling Stephanie Perkins.  Whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah, Winter Solstice or Kwanzaa, there's something here for everyone.  So curl up by the fireplace and get cozy.  You have twelve reasons this season to stay indoors and fall in love. (from the cover)

Ch FIC Dai Dai, Sijie. Ba er zha ke yu xiao cai feng. Traditional Chinese Edition (Not in English). 

FIC Ford Ford, Richard, 1944-. Let Me be Frank With YouIn the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Frank Bascombe travels to the site of his former home on the shore, visits his ex-wife, who is 
suffering with Parkinson's, and meets a dying former friend. Ford reinvents Bascombe in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. In four richly luminous narratives, Bascombe attempts to reconcile, 
interpret and console a world undone by calamity. It is a moving and wondrous and extremely funny odyssey through the America people live in at this moment.

FIC Gibson Gibson, William, 1948-. The Peripheral. Where Flynne and her brother, Burton, live, jobs outside the drug business are rare. Fortunately, Burton has his veteran's benefits, for neural damage he suffered from implants during his time in the USMC's elite Haptic Recon force. Then one night Burton has to go out, but there's a job he's supposed to do-a job Flynne didn't know he had.What she sees, though, isn't what Burton told her to expect. It might be a game, but it might also be murder.

FIC Mod Modiano, Patrick, 1945-. Suspended Sentences : three novellas. New Haven : Yale University Press, 2015.

FIC Robi Robinson, Marilynne. Lila.Abandoning her homeless existence to become a minister's wife, Lila reflects on her hardscrabble life on the run with a canny young drifter and her efforts to reconcile her painful past with her husband's gentle Christian worldview.

FIC Ryan YA Ryan, Carrie. The Forest of Hands and TeethYork : Delacorte Press, c2009. Through twists and turns of fate, orphaned Mary seeks knowledge of life, love, and especially what lies beyond her walled village and the surrounding forest, where dwell the Unconsecrated, aggressive 

FIC Ryan YA Ryan, Carrie. The Dark and Hollow Places. 1st Ember ed. New York : 

FIC Ryan YA Ryan, Carrie. The Dead-Tossed Waves.  New York : flesh-eating people who were once dead. Ember, 2012, c2011. Alone and listening to the moaning of the Dark City dying around her, Annah wants to find her way back home, to her sister and family and their village in the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Ember, 2011, c2010. Gabry lives a quiet life in a town trapped between a forest and the ocean, hemmed in by the dead who hunger for the living, but her mother Mary's secrets, a cult of religious zealots who worship the dead, and a stranger from the forest who seems to know Gabry threaten to destroy her world.

FIC Sch YA Schrefer, Eliot, 1978-. Threatened. 1st ed. New York : Scholastic Press, 2014. Luc is an orphan, living in debt slavery in Gabon, until he meets a Professor who claims to be studying chimpanzees, and they head off into the jungle--but when the Professor disappears, Luc has to fend for himself and join forces with the chimps to save their forest.



FIC Sti YA Stiefvater, Maggie, 1981- . Blue Lily, Lily Blue. Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs. The trick with found things though, is how easily they can be lost.

FIC Toi Tóibín, Colm, 1955-. Nora Webster : a Novel"Widowed at forty, with four children and not enough money, Nora has lost the love of her life, Maurice, the man who rescued her from the stifling world to which she was born. And now she fears she may be drawn back into it.




Non-fiction





128 W Wilson, Edward O. The Meaning of Human Existence. 1st ed. New York : Liveright Pub. Corp., a Division of W.W. Norton & Co., [2014]. 

299.5 M Merton, Thomas, 1915-1968. The way of Chuang Tzu. Rev.  New York : New Directions Books, 2010. 

303.45 P Peikoff, Leonard. The DIM Hypothesis : Why the Lights of the West are going out. New York : New American Library, c2012. 



306.76 A c.2 Andrews, Arin. Some Assembly Required : The Not-So-Secret Life of a transgender Teen"Seventeen-year-old Arin Andrews shares all the hilarious, painful, and poignant details of  undergoing gender reassignment as a high school student in this winning teen memoir"--. 

370.112 L Leitch, Thomas M. Wikipedia U : knowledge, authority, and education in the digital age. 

384.38 D Dwyer, Jim, 1957-. More Awesome Than Money : Four Boys and Their Heroic Quest to Save Your Privacy from Facebook.

620.001 G Goldberg, David E. Whole New Engineer : the Coming Revolution in Engineering Education. [S.l.] : Threejoy Associates, 2014. 

808 P Pinker, Steven, 1954- author. The Sense of Style : the Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st century.

811.6 McL McLane, Maureen N., author. This Blue. First edition. guide to writing in the 21st century..


DVDs

DVD 305.896  The Two Nations of Black America. [Alexandria, Va.] : Distributed by PBS


DVD 320.473  The Three Branches of Government : How they Function. Las Vegas, NV :

DVD 342.73  American Government. Classroom ed.  Cerebellum Worldwide Media, 2011.Narrator, Alex Davis. Take a close look at the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of the United States government and how they function and work together. Corp., [2004], c2001.

DVD 428.5 E English Grammar. Classroom ed. [Falls Church, Va.] : Cerebellum Standard Deviants. The Standard Deviants look at sentence.

DVD 791.43  Beasts of the Southern Wild. Beverly Hills, Calif. : 20th Century Fox fragments, Home Entertainment, c2012.

DVD 791.43  Freedom Writers. Widescreen. Hollywood, Calif. : Paramount Home Entertainment, [2007].

DVD 791.45 Mid The Middle. Burbank, CA : Warner Bros. Entertainment :, [2010].

DVD 791.45 Mod Modern Family. Widescreen. Beverly Hills, CA : 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, c2010.


Friday, November 21, 2014

 Author Christina Baker Kline visits Bryn Mawr. 

Christina Baker Kline with Mr. Waters, Sophie, and Sophia

On October 22nd author Christina Baker Kline visited Bryn Mawr. Ms. Kline is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel, Orphan Train. She first met with Mr. Waters' Creative Writing class where she discussed the writing process and took questions from the students. Sophie and Sophia then escorted her back to the library where they had a great informal chat and private book signing.   Both girls are big fans of Ms. Kline

Ms. Kline then delivered  a fascinating  assembly on the history of Orphan Trains in America. She shared that her husband's grandfather was a "train rider", and that it was while researching his family that she became interested in this unique event in American history.


Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Summer Reading

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Student Summer Reading Convocation last week.  We have 12 great books from which to choose. Here is the list of Student Nominated Summer books.  Choose one. Remember to complete your Required Summer Reading  too!


Evidence of Things Unseen, by Marianne Wiggins
This poetic novel describes America at the brink of the Atomic Age. In the years between the two world wars, the future held more promise than peril, but there was evidence of things unseen that would transfigure our unquestioned trust in a safe future. Alice S., who nominated this book,  said  "You should read this book if you like historical fiction or  love stories. The language is the most beautiful I have ever read".
(appropriate for rising 11th and 12th Graders)
In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
"In the Time of the Butterflies is a powerful novel that tells the story of four sisters from the Mirabel family. This story is set during Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship in the Dominican Republic from 1930 to 1961. One of the sisters decides to join the revolution against the dictator, and in doing so, endangers the lives of all four. They are forced to change their ways of life under his oppressive power and the result is a fantastic tale of life and death and the human experience. One of my favorite things about this novel is the vibrant culture and the way Julie Alvarez is able to successfully convey the unique voice and personality of all four sisters." (review by Alex)
Paper Towns, by John Green (Young Adult)
"Quentin Jacobsen is senior who lives in a small town in Miami. He has spent a lifetime falling in love with the girl next door, Margo Roth Spiegelman. So when an opportunity  to help her arises, he immediately accepts. After an adventurous night out spent getting revenge and trespassing, Quentin arrives at school to discover that Margo, has disappeared. However  Quentin soon realizes that there are clues that she left him, to help discover where she is."(review by Peyton)
Warning:This book contains some bad language and sexual references.  
Emma, by Jane Austen
"Matchmaking, while extremely fun, is a dangerous business. Emma is Jane Austen’s novel about a girl who considers herself to be a magnificent matchmaker when in reality, she is anything but. Emma is an independent, clever, high society young woman who does not require a man at her side. However, although not interested in finding herself love, she is very interested in finding other people their love interests.  This charmingly comical novel about love, friendship, and the bridge that connects the two is most definitely a worthwhile and extremely rewarding read." (review by Kimaya)
Orphan Train, by Christina Baker Kline (Ms. Kline will visit Bryn Mawr next October.)
"Between 1854 and 1929, so-called orphan trains ran regularly from the cities of  the East Coast to the farmlands of the Midwest, carrying thousands of abandoned children whose fates were  determined by pure luck. The children in this story were entrusted to families , in many cases, to help with household chores or cheap labor.   Not only does it entail a beautiful story of two women in their battle for identity, but it can teach the reader about her own identity." (review by Allie)
Every Day, by David Levithan (Young Adult)
For the past 16 years, without warning of any kind, the narrator known only as A wakes up in a different life every single day. The new identity is always A's age, or close to it, but that's mostly where the similarity ends. A can be a boy or a girl, gay or straight, funny or downright cruel. A never gets attached to a family, to a school, or a group of friends--until  Rhiannon.  (nominated by Celia)
The Long Walk, by Richard Bachman (Stephen King)
The Long Walk, a Stephen King novel, is a book about a future dystopian society.  Every year on May 1st, a competition called the Long Walkstarts is held.  During this contest, one hundred teenage boys, picked at random from a large pool of applicants, walk as far as possible without stopping.  They must maintain a 4-mile-per-hour pace and are warned if unable to meet this requirement.  After four warnings, the person is “ticketed.”  The last person standing wins the “Prize,” awarded by “the Major” who is the leading figure of the country.  This action packed novel filled with friendship, survival, and suspense will leave the reader questioning the ending.  I chose this book because I found Ray, the protagonist, to be  an interesting character who’s questions and thoughts made me think and explore topics I had never thought of, and  morals I have never  questioned.  This book brings alive each character and makes them unforgetable. (review by Charlotte)
Warning: This book is scary, and contains profanity and some violence. Please check with a parent or guardian before reading!
Daughter of Smoke and Bone,by Laini Taylor (Young Adult). “Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love.  It did not end well.” That’s the first line of Laini Taylor’sDaughter of Smoke and Bone.  It’s a good line—a catchy line—but it’s also a misleading line.  It makes everything sound so simple: angels and devils, fairytales and tragic romance.  To be fair, Daughter of Smoke and Bone technically does have all those things, but there’s so much more at its heart.  A blue-haired girl named Karou who collects teeth to string into wishes.  Dusty shops and goulash soup and a dancing girl dressed as a marionette.  Prague, a city that serves not as a backdrop, but as a character all its own.  And a rip in the sky behind which lies a distinctly unearthly universe. Daughter of Smoke and Bone has some of the most fascinating and creative fantasy world-building I’ve seen in a long time.  It’s witty and vibrant and beautifully written.”  (review by Emily)
On the Road, by Jack Kerouac
"When my father handed me a copy of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road for my 15th birthday, I didn’t know what was given to me. I had never heard of Kerouac in my life, let alone the Beat Generation. There are many people, simpletons in my mind, who see Kerouac and his beats as nothing more than a crew of degenerates who engaged in every known vice under the sun. I would like to banish this stigma once and for all, as Kerouac’s work stretches farther than the stereotype people have put him in. On the Road is a novel of the individual, as well as a novel of America. On the Road is a novel of the individual, as well as a novel of America. It uses the landscape of the country to express all  that is inherent in the human condition." (review by Maddie)
Warning: This classic contains references to drugs, alcohol, and sex. Common Sense Media rates it as appropriate for 16 yrs. and older.
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
“I don’t know what’s worse: to not know what you are and be happy, or to become what you’ve always wanted to be, and feel alone.” In Flowers for Algernon, Charlie Gordan is offered the opportunity of a lifetime. He is given the chance to receive a surgery in order to reverse his mental disability. The surgery comes with great risks, as he would be the very first human to even attempt such a thing. The surgery has only worked one time on a mouse named Algernon, who Charlie creates a close relationship with.  As Charlie’s intelligence grows he must try to develop his emotional age as well. Charlie sees the world through a fresh pair of eyes and his take on his surroundings is refreshing. "Flowers for Algernon gives a fresh take on the world and on the relationships that we have with people. It is a heart-wrenching novel and truly moved me when I read it. I highly recommend this book. " (review by Isabelle)
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
"Traditional texts glory in our nation's conquest of the virgin frontier. But how did the American Indians of the Old West feel about the coming of the white man? What did Chief Joseph, Red Cloud, Geronimo and Sitting Bull have to say about it?  This book, written by a librarian, uses beautiful photographs and contemporary, original sources to document the actual words of American Indians who were coping with the loss of their lands.  Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee will change forever your perception of how the west was really won." (review by Sophie, read by Rachel)
In the Heart of the Sea:The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, by Nathaniel Philbrick
The ordeal of the whaleship Essex was an event as mythic in the nineteenth century as the sinking of the Titanic was in the twentieth. In 1819, the Essex left Nantucket for the South Pacific with twenty crew members aboard. In the middle of the South Pacific the ship was rammed and sunk by an angry sperm whale. The crew drifted for more than ninety days in three tiny whaleboats, succumbing to weather, hunger, disease, and ultimately turning to drastic measures in the fight for survival. Nathaniel Philbrick uses little-known documents-including a long-lost account written by the ship's cabin boy-and penetrating details about whaling and the Nantucket community to reveal the chilling events surrounding this epic maritime disaster(nominated by Mr. Brown)