Where To Travel - Based On Your Hogwarts House!

For the Potters, Cedrics, Lunas, and Malfoy's alike: Lonely Planet has the ultimate article on your next travel destination! Based upon your House (which, if you don't know where you belong yet, head over to pottermore.com to take the test), Lonely Planet offers a plethora of ideas, from Canada to Tokyo, from Nicaragua to Ethiopia. If only broomsticks were real...but then again, would any of us really want to jet over the Pacific on a Firebolt, romantic as it sounds?

Whatever you do, remember the Sorting Hat's wisdom: you have the final say on where you end up!

Favourite Reads of 2007 - Library Wholesaler Picks

And finally, just squeaking in before the end of the year, are some favourite reads from United Library Services, a library wholesaler located in Calgary. We have recommendations from Robin Hoogwerf, the general manager, and from their Manitoba and Saskatchewan rep, David Larsen.

Robin's favourite reads:

Consumption by Kevin Patterson
Dream Wheels by Richard Wagamese - It seemed to fade away but was my favorite fiction from last year
Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
Shaggy Muses: The Dogs Who Inspired Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edith Wharton, and Emily Brontë by Maureen Adams - I learned so much about this group of writers!
Jon Katz - any book from Jon Katz! For some reason his tone and pacing is like sipping Bailey's. Smooth and warm.

David's List (with help from his daughter Piper):
Crazy Man by Pamela Porter
Parvana's Journey by Deborah Ellis
Ottoline and the Yellow Cat by Chris Riddell
Keeper by Mal Peet
Heavy Water and Other Stories by Martin Amis
Yellow Dog by Martin Amis
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
Storming The Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics by Rebecca Solnit
Some of the Dharma by Jack Kerouac
Zen Is Right Here by Shunryu Suzuki

Recommendations 2007

My fellow sales reps and I were sitting together the other day and we were volunteering our favourite books of the year. There were the usual suspects but there were surprises (not to mention the wealth of titles cited below!), which means my personal reading pile has just suddenly risen exponentially…

A few of my personal favourites for 2007 must begin with Don DeLillo’s Falling Man. In my opinion, except for one misstep (The Body Artist), DeLillo has been a go-to author for me over the years. I was riveted and humoured by the train wreck that was Cosmopolis. I was immersed in the epic journey that was Underworld and I was horrified and saddened by the catastrophe that was Falling Man. For me, the strength of Don DeLillo is his singular mastery of the written word. His characters and plots do not always resonate for me but his writing definitely does.

Another favourite of mine was Patricia McLaughlin’s Edwards Eyes. A small (in size only) masterpiece, this triumph of spare, poetic prose is neither maudlin nor simple. There are many wonderful, memorable characters, an individual setting and a plot that, while fairly predictable, gracefully meanders to its conclusion allowing us along for the ride. I love this book.

A fiction title that was initially a dark horse for me was Linda Barry’s Later, At the Bar. It is a series of interconnected short stories that focus on each regular customer of this local bar in a small town in upper state New York. The book begins with story of the old woman who owns the bar and the circumstances by which she comes to own the establishment. The second story follows a man who is a regular at the bar and a good friend of the old woman (he is introduced at the end of the first story). The book connects all of the regulars together in a network of shared experiences but also uncovers the reasons why each person is there in the first place. This is an unassuming book that vibrates with the energy of life and the power of remembrance.

A nonfiction book that I read this year which actually was published in 2006 is Patrick Hanlon’s Primalbranding: Create Zealots For Your Brand, Your Company, and Your Future. It could be considered a business book but I would prefer to characterize this book as a primer of contemporary society. Patrick Hanlon is the founder and CEO of Thinktopia, a marketing firm that is responsible for many prominent advertising campaigns. Hanlon outlines the seven criteria to which every successful company or individual should understand in order to “create zealots for your brand”. How come people can recognize a Starbucks coffee cup from across a busy street? Who doesn’t know what that little swish on Tiger Woods golf cap stands for? Why does Tom Cruise’s image elicit a different reaction now than it did five years ago? Hanlon tells the reader what every successful person or company knows (sometimes only intuitively). I think anyone could read this fascinating book and learn something useful about how the world around us ticks.

And, finally, my pick of children’s picture book is the release in paperback of a book originally published by Picture Book Studios in 1990 (but out of print for several years) – Santa’s Favorite Story by Hisako Aoki and illustrated by Ivan Gantchev. This wonderful story weaves together the Santa story and the Nativity story. Santa goes for a walk in the woods, decides he’s not going to go out Christmas Eve because he’s tired and all the forest animals are horrified. There won’t be a Christmas if you don’t go out, Santa, they say. Santa tells them he isn’t the reason there’s a Christmas every year. He proceeds to tell the animals his favourite story – the Nativity story. The story changes everyone’s mind, even Santa’s. I’ve read it to my daughter every year for five years. It’s a tradition in our household now.

Favourite Reads of 2007 - Library Wholesaler Picks

Some favourite reads of the year from Library Services Centre, a library wholesaler in Kitchener, Ontario.

Christine Derstine - Library Services Centre

Adult Books:

28:Stories of Aids in Africa by Stephanie Nolen
Thames : Sacred River by Peter Ackroyd.
The 100 Mile Diet by Alisa Smith & J.B. MacKinnon
The Silence of the Songbirds by Bridget Stutchbury
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
The Good Husband of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith
Dead Cold by Louise Penny
Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky

Juvenile & Teen
His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman
Better than Blonde by Teresa Toten
Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
What’s Up Duck: a Book of Opposites by Tad Hills
Blue Goose by Nancy Tafuri
Bon Jour Butterfly (Fancy Nancy) by Jane O’Conner
Here a Face, There a Face by Arlene Alda

The Blame Graphic Novel Series

Christine Derstine is the Sales and Marketing Representative for Library Services Centre

Favourite Reads of 2007 - The Librarian's Picks Part 4

Another fun list from another librarian and avid reader, this time from Oakville Public Library.

Diane Crew - Oakville Public Library

Some books I've loved in 2007:

A Question of Attraction by David Nicholls (Title: Starter for Ten in Britain where it was first published)
A hilarious and heartbreakingly “true” coming of age novel which will make you so very glad you will never have to go through being an eighteen year old university student again! It is laugh-out-loud funny, even as you wince in recognition, watching young Brian Jackson as he embarks on the study of literature at university, and on establishing himself as a man of erudition, wit and discerning taste. His attempts begin with competing for a place on the University Challenge quiz team, where he tries to rise above class disadvantages and his bad skin condition to win the fair Alice. Of course, it’s all a disaster, but Nicholls has a spot-on ear for dialogue and he draws his characters with real affection, which holds our sympathy even while we have to laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Just In Case by Meg Rosoff
Following her amazing How I Live Now, here is another not-to-be-missed young adult crossover novel from an author whose books just keep getting better all the time. David Case is persuaded by a near-disastrous experience babysitting his little brother that Fate is out to get him. So he changes his name to Justin and then proceeds to change everything else he can, including the way he dresses and lives, to try to hide from Fate and to escape his destiny. This is a truly remarkable book that with economy and a light touch looks at the big issues - chance and destiny, death and the meaning of life itself.

Sovereign by C. J. Sansom
This is the third (and latest) offering in C.J. Sansom’s series of Tudor mysteries featuring hunchback lawyer, Matthew Shardlake. If you enjoy a mystery underpinned by fascinating, well-researched history then you’ll love this series. The novel’s setting is the Royal Progress which Henry VIII undertook in 1541 to try to rebuild his popularity in the North of England. The king and his entourage reach the City of York at the same time as Shardlake who, with his assistant Jack Barak, is on a mission to pick up a prisoner charged with treason. They are plunged into the heart of uncovering a conspiracy intent on proving the illegitimacy of Henry’s claim to the throne, and the pace never lets up. Sansom is so good at bringing to life the discomfort, dirt and smells as well as the cruelty and the sheer danger of life in Henry’s paranoid England. The mystery is cleverly plotted, the history is authentic and the writing is wonderful – this is the best yet in a first-rate series.

The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber
Seventeenth century ciphered letters are found in a rare book which point to the existence of a hitherto unknown Shakespeare play. Skulduggery abounds as international criminal gangs compete with our heroes in the race to lay hands on this treasure. But is it genuine or yet another forgery? This is an intelligent and literate thriller that engages our interest and our sympathies for the main characters whilst it draws us right into the heart of the gripping and enthralling story. Dan Brown only wishes he could write something this good!

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
Despite some flaws – it’s a tad too long, and the writing can become a bit flowery at times – this wow of a first novel is an exhilarating experience, offering us an extended literary joke and a murder mystery, all wrapped up in a coming of age story, and all very clever! Blue Van Meer and her father, a university professor, settle in Stockton NC just long enough for her to complete her final year of high school. There she is picked up by an in-group of students who call themselves the Bluebloods, and her whole life changes. The book is constructed like an English course syllabus, and peppered with clever footnotes and a breathtakingly esoteric range of allusion and reference, as we unpeel the layers to get to the truth concealed beneath. It’s quite unlike anything else I’ve read in a long while, and I can’t wait to see what she does next.

Diane Crew is the Adult Collection Development Assistant at Oakville Public Library.

Best Books of 2007 - Dewey Picks Part 3

Two more Top Ten Lists from the Dewey reps for H.B. Fenn and Simon & Schuster Canada.

Rosalyn's List:

1. Heartsick by Chelsea Cain

2. Bobbie Faye’s Very (Very, Very, Very) Bad Day by Toni McGee Causey

As Lahring puts it ‘Into everyone’s life, a little fluff must fall’! This book made me laugh hysterically and was an action-packed romp from start to finish. Criminals have kidnapped Bobbie Faye’s good-for-nothing brother, and are demanding her Contraband Queen tiara (the only thing of her mama’s she has left) as ransom. With the clock ticking, Bobbie Faye has to outwit the police, organized crime, former boyfriends, and a hostage she never intended to take in order to rescue her brother, keep custody of her niece, and get back in time to take her place as Contraband Queen in the Lake Charles Contraband Festival parade.
3. The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani

4. The Terror Dream by Susan Faludi

This examination of the cultural impact of 9/11 will both shock and educate the reader.
5. The Elephant & Piggie series by Mo Willems: Today I Will Fly! /My Friend is Sad! /I am Invited to a Party! /There is A Bird on Your Head

6. Ottoline and the Yellow Cat by Chris Riddell

7. The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

8. Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Willems

9. Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears by Emily Gravett

Little Mouse takes the reader through his many fears, from ‘whereamiophobia’ (fear of getting lost) to ‘Teratophobia’ (the fear of monsters). The book is a masterpiece of design, from it’s ‘mouse nibbled’ die-cuts to the fold out map of the (mouse-shaped) ‘Isle of Fright’ with labels such as ‘Wide Eye Lake’, ‘Mount Apprehension’, ‘Loose Bottom’ and the towns of ‘Balking’ and ‘Great Wimp’. This is a book that benefits from multiple readings- each time you’ll discover something new in the illustrations.
10. Black Book of Secrets by F. E. Higgins

Eleanor's List:

1.On Borrowed Wings by Chandra Prasad - A great read, reminiscent of the movie Yentl that Barbra Streisand starred in . Adele assumes the identity – and gender – of her deceased brother to gain entrance into Yale. Read and find out how this tale of deceit plays through.
This is part social history and part coming of age – totally intriguing , very well written and researched.

2. Ice Trap by Kitty Sewell

3.Wife in the Fast Lane by Karen Quinn
4. The Wilde Women by Paula Wall
5. Waiting to Surface by Emily Listfield
6. Billie Standish Was Here by Nancy Crocker
7. Lacemaker and the Princess by Kimberley Brubaker Bradley
8. The Miner's Daughter by Gretchen Moran Laskas

9. Indie Girl by Kavita Dawasni

10. When the Black Girl Sings by Bill Wright

Nonfiction pick:

To Cork or Not to Cork by George M Taber - Wonderful book for anyone who enjoys drinking wine or sharing unusual tidbits about wine over the dinner table. Taber traces the history and use of cork from Ancient China through to Middle Ages, Renaissance and into today and also discusses how cork has been challenged by screwtops, plastic, glass and even zork! There is also talk about memorable characters and pivotal moments in wine production, consumption , and storage. A great read for the inquisitive as well as the wine lover!

Favourite Reads of 2007 - The Librarian's Picks Part 3

Continuing our series, today we have some great reading picks by librarians from Toronto and Kingston.

Valerie Casselman - Toronto Public Library

My titles are all literary fiction. Because I am a librarian, they are in alpha order by title:

The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart
Consequences by Penelope Lively
Exit Ghost by Philip Roth
The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
The Pesthouse by Jim Crace
The Post-birthday World by Lionel Shriver

The Song Before it is Sung by Justin Cartwright

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

Valerie Casselman is the Adult Materials Collections Librarian for the Toronto Public Library. Her proudest accomplishment is having raised two readers - twin boys who have both asked for "some serious fiction" for Christmas!

Bessie Sullivan - Kingston Frontenac Public Library

Like many librarians, I am an avid reader. It wasn’t until recently that I began to realize that there is some pattern to my reading. Also that some of my reading directly influences the next choice. The YA titles I chose are good examples of books that encourage young people to think individually and to be aware of, and involved in, social issues. The non-fiction title I chose appeals to my love of statistics and the ways in which they can be interpreted. The fiction titles represent an eclectic mix of Canadian mystery, fiction about other cultures, and women’s stories. I want to be entertained by what I read but sometimes I also want my thoughts provoked. The following are what stood out the most for me over the course of my reading in 2007.

YA Fiction

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
In his first novel for a younger audience, Carl Hiaasen plunges readers into the middle of an ecological mystery, made up of endangered miniature owls and the owls' unlikely allies--three middle-school kids determined to beat the screwed-up adult system. All of Hiaasen’s dark humour slightly sanitized for the young adult reader. This effort was followed by Flush in 2005.
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
The story centres on a new tenth grade student at Mica Area High School in Arizona: Stargirl Caraway, an eccentric and compassionate non-conformist vegetarian who has spent her previous years in homeschooling. Eleventh-grader Leo Borlock narrates with equal amounts of grudging admiration for her eccentricity and the hope that Stargirl could somehow be more normal, and thus attract less ridicule. A sequel, Love, Stargirl, was released in August of this year.
Schooled by Gordon Korman
This book is about Capricorn Anderson, a home-schooled boy raised in isolation by his grandmother, an ex-hippie from the sixties. It's the story of what happens when he's suddenly thrust into a large middle school. An accident befalls his grandmother, Rain, and Cap is placed in the care of a social worker while his grandmother recuperates. Having never handled money or lived in a house with a telephone, Cap finds himself baffled by what the people around him take for normal.

Non-Fiction
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
The book is a collection of economic articles written by Levitt, translated into prose meant for a wide audience. Levitt had already gained a reputation in academia for applying economic theory to diverse subjects not usually covered by "traditional" economists. This fascinating book connects economic statistics with social and cultural phenomenon.

Adult Fiction

Later at the Bar by Rebecca Barry
By telling the stories of regular patrons at Lucy’s Tavern, Rebecca Barry captures the idiosyncrasies of an upstate New York backwater where social life revolves around the happenings of the bar.

Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Nazneen is a Bangladeshi girl whose father arranges a marriage to Chanu, a Bengali immigrant living in England. Although Chanu—who is twice Nazneen's age--turns out to be a foolish blowhard, Nazneen accepts her fate, thereby applying the main life lesson taught by the women in her family. Over the next decade and a half Nazneen grows into a strong, confident woman who doesn't defy fate so much as bend it to her will.

Still Life by Louise Penny
The residents of a tiny Canadian village called Three Pines are shocked when the body of Miss Jane Neal is found in the woods. Miss Neal, the village's retired schoolteacher and a talented amateur artist, has been a good friend to most of the townsfolk, and so her loss is keenly felt. At first, her death appears to be a tragic accident, but the seemingly peaceful, friendly village hides dark secrets.

The Birth House by Ami McKay
Modernity meets tradition during World War I in the isolated coastal town of Scots Bay, Nova Scotia, where the men make their living building boats and fishing and the women tend to matters of the home, including birthing and raising children, feeding their families, and cultivating gardens and friendships. When Dr. Gilbert Thomas arrives, promising to bring safe and hygienic methods to childbirth, the local women are faced with the choice of turning to him or continuing to be cared for by the midwife and all she represents.

The Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly
Karen Connelly’s first novel recreates the world of a Burmese prison, and of the country’s tumultuous years in the late 1980s, when millions of people rose up to protest against the brutality of their military government. This is a story of human resilience, love and humour in a world that celebrates the human spirit in the midst of injustice and violence.

By the Time You Read This by Giles Blunt
Giles Blunt is Canada’s answer to Ian Rankin. This dark, gritty novel is the latest in a series featuring Detective John Cardinal. Here, he is on the hunt for an ingenious killer even as he mourns his own wife’s tragic death. In this thriller of heart-stopping suspense, Blunt makes Northern Ontario seem not so removed from big-city problems, after all.

Bessie Sullivan is the Branch Librarian for the Calvin Park, Kingscourt, and Pittsburgh branches of the Kingston Frontenac Public Library. Her eclectic reading habits are derived from having too many cats, kids, and parents. (Two, two, and two) Thankfully she has a supportive partner who understands that reading is ”professional development” and doesn’t get too concerned about the lack of cleaning that gets done at home.

Favourite Reads of 2007 - The Librarian's Picks Part 2

Today we have some librarian picks from Western and Central Ontario. The Deweys have been bumping into Sharron Smith at various libraries all across the province this fall, as she is in high demand with her seminars for readers' advisory staff. She also teaches a course at the Library School of the University of Western Ontario where John Miedema, our second guest, is a student. He also runs the terrific slowreading blog

Sharron Smith's picks - Kitchener Public Library

Here is my list of some of my favourite reads of 2007:

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
Debut novelist Horan blends fact and fiction as she recounts the affair between Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick Cheney, the wife of one of Wright’s clients. Commissioned to build a home for the Cheney’s in 1903, the two went on to have an affair that shocked society of the day and destroyed themselves and those around them. Horan is able to draw the reader into the life of Mamah and her thoughts and feelings about her choices and Wright himself come through clearly. This is not so much the story of an affair, but rather the implications of choices that were made by a woman trying to carve out a life for herself beyond the bonds of the early twentieth century.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hoseini
Two boys, Amir, son of a prominent and wealthy man, Hassan, son of Amir's father's servant, it is through the recounting of the relationship between these two boys that the reader is taken into Afghanistan. Hosseini, through the pages of his story explores relationships – the bonds between fathers and sons, the bonds between two boys raised in the same home yet worlds apart and the bonds of culture. Through the recounting their lives and their choices, we learn about life in Kabul before the Russian invasion and then the destruction of all they held dear. This is a tour de force that clearly demonstrates the power of story.

Smoke by Elizabeth Ruth
Travel back to rural Southern Ontario in the 1950s through the pages of Elizabeth Ruth’s second novel, Smoke. Here we meet Buster McFiddie, a popular, handsome 15-year-old whose life changes forever one night after he falls asleep in bed smoking and Doc John, the town doctor who tells Buster stories of a Detroit mob gang in the 30’s to help him ease the pain of his burns. As the story unfolds, the reader is asked to consider what is most important, who we are on the outside or the inside.

Before I Wake by Robert J. Wiersema
The lives of the characters in this book are changed forever following a hit-and-run accident that leaves three year old Sherry Barrett in a coma. Sherry’s parents, forced to confront every parent’s nightmare - the loss of a child, take their daughter off life support, however, the child breathes on her own, this is only the first of a number of “miracles”. At home, Sherry’s nurse discovers that the child’s touch has the power to heal and as word of this gift leaks out believers begin to gather. Like Sherry’s parents, the reader is asked to consider questions of faith and belief.

October by Richard B. Wright
With a grace and gentleness of style Wright weaves the story of a man who must confront both his present and his past and the connection between the two. James Hillyer, a retired professor, is in England to spend time with his daughter, she has recently been diagnosed with cancer. While there, he has a chance encounter with a man he knew as a teenager and it is through this meeting that he comes to recall a summer spent with his uncle in Quebec and to consider a unique request that will help him face the possibility of outliving his child.

Never wanting to waste a “free” moment, I indulged myself during my recent weekly travels between Kitchener and London, with some great pleasure reads. Audiobooks are a fabulous way to experience books that you might just not find time to get to. Here are some recent “reads” that have engaged and entertained while on the road.

Austenland by Shannon Hale
The Sea by John Banville
Abundance : a novel of Marie Antoinette by Sena Jeter Naslund
Mary Modern : a novel by Camille DeAngelis

The secret life of Josephine : Napoleon's bird of paradise by Carolly Erickson

Sharron Smith is the Manager of Readers’ Advisory Services at the Kitchener Public Library and the co-author of Canadian Fiction: a guide to reading interests a resource designed to connect readers and books; as well, she is an active participant in a professional readers’ advisory committees both in Ontario and the U.S. A committed promoter of reading in her community through appearances on local television, public speaking and community outreach; she has been actively involved with the Region of Waterloo’s One Book, One Community program, one of the first community reading campaigns in Canada, since it began in 2002.

John Miedema's Top 10 Books of 2007 - University of Western Ontario Library School :

I have a strong preference for Canadian fiction writers as you can tell by the list. Salamander was the top pick because it is a wonderful story about a printer, and I grew up in the printing shop of my family home. Black Water was my first BookCrossing catch (bookcrossing.com); what fun! I enjoy reading slowly; the top ten are almost all the books I have read for pleasure this year.

Salamander, Thomas Wharton
Conceit, Mary Novik
The Republic of Nothing, Lesley Choyce
Bloodletting & Miracle Cures, Vincent Lam
The Memory of Running, Ron McLarty
The 100 Mile Diet, Alisa Smith & J.B. Mackinnon
Home Schooling, Carol Windley
A History of Reading, Alberto Manguel
Job: A Comedy of Justice, Robert Heinlein
Black Water, TJ MacGregor

John Miedema is a library student at the University of Western Ontario, and author of the blog, slowreading.net

Best Books of 2007 - Dewey Picks Part 2

Continuing our series of Top Ten Books for 2007, today we have two Deweys who are reps for The Literary Press Group and Kate Walker & Company - both of whom represent a wide variety of different publishers including many small Canadian presses. I guarantee you'll be introduced to some great new authors by browsing their lists.

Susan's Top Ten Picks

1. The Reckoning of Boston Jim by Clair Mulligan

Immersed in the sights, sounds and smells of the Caribou Gold Rush, these finely drawn, complex characters interact with historic people, places and events while struggling towards goals which, finally, are not about gold at all. This book was on the 2007 Giller longlist. Historical Fiction.

2. The Evergreen County: A Memoir of Vietnam by Thuong Vuong-Riddick

A Chinese family’s struggle to overcome difficulties during the rise of the Viet Cong in Northern Vietnam and their eventual journey to Southern Vietnam where war would soon follow them. Memoir.

3.GreenTOpia: Reimagining Green in Toronto, Edited by Alana Wilcox, Christina Palassio and Jonny Dovercourt

4. The Girls Who Saw Everything by Sean Dixon.

5. The Bone Cage by Angie

6. The Paper Trail by Arleen

7. Be Wolf by Wayne

8. Rather Laugh, Than Cry: Stories from a Hassidic Household by Malka Zipora

9. The Good Lie by D.F. Bailey.
10. Wages by John Armstrong

Saffron's Top Ten List:

1 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

Absolutely worth all the hype and wait.

2. How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard

A funny, tongue in cheek (but not necessarily) on how to deal with all of those unread books piled up beside your bed.

3. My Last Supper by Melanie Dunea

4. Nature of Monsters by Claire Clarke

5. Do Not Open by various authors
6. Exploits of A Reluctant (But Extremely Good Looking) Hero by Maureen Fergus.

7. Porn for Women, by the Cambridge Women's Pornography Collective

8. One Well: The Story of Water on Earth by Rochelle Strauss, illustrated by Rosemary Woods.

9. Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks
10. I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids by Trisha Ashworth and Amy Nobile

Best Books of 2007 - Library Wholesaler Picks

Today we have two Top 10 lists focusing on children's and teen books by selection staff from library and school wholesalers.

Kate Newman's Top Ten List - National Book Service

Great fiction for teens! (In no particular order)

1. Soames on the Range by Nancy Belgue
2. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
3. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer (the third book in the Twilight series)
4. How It Happened at Peach Hill by Marthe Jocelyn
5. Life on the Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers
6. Leaving Simplicity by Claire Carmichael
7. The Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher
8. Pride of Baghdad by Brian Vaughan with art by Niko Henrichon (Yes, it’s a graphic novel… and totally mind blowing!)
9. The Blue Helmet by William Bell
10. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Bonus Book:

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff – while not published this year, it is one of the most moving, thought provoking, and riveting books I have ever read.
Why these books:
Finding amazing books for teens can be very difficult. I always look for books with the right balance of maturity and fun; that is, books that acknowledge the intelligence of the reader and still manage to keep readers (me) interested. Books that ring true to the teenage experience (angst and all) are always winners.

Kate Newman is the Young Adult Selection Specialist for National Book Service. I am lucky enough to work in an industry that I love, one that allows me to help bring great books to young people. With my background as a children’s bookseller, my time in the publishing world, and now, as a book buyer, I have had the privilege of learning about the delicate balance of matching the perfect book with the right reader.

Helen Wilding Cook's Top Ten List - Library Bound

If I’m honest, these are the books that I couldn’t wait to start, and was sad to finish. They have literary merit, too. I love fantasy novels as my list, with few notable exceptions, shows.

Top Ten 2007 Novels
1. Stoneheart by Charlie Fletcher
2. Becca at Sea by Deirdre Baker
3. Power Plays by Maureen Ulrich
4. Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley
5. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
7. Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson
8. The Ellie Chronicles. While I Live by John Marsden
9. Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks
10. Hamish X and the Hollow Mountain by Sean Cullen

Artemis Fowl: The Graphic Novel by Eoin Colfer
- did an excellent job transforming to Graphic Novel.
(To see reviews of most of these titles, please click the link, then “Staff Favourites”. )
http://www.librarybound.com/

Top Ten 2007 Books I Still Really, Really Want to Read
(alphabetical order)
Before I Die by Jenny Downham
Big Big Sky by Kristyn Dunnion
The Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane by Polly Horvath
Darkwing by Kenneth Oppel
Does My Head Look Big In This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah
Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis
Into the Ravine by Richard Scrimger
Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Mirrorscape by Mike Wilks
Schooled by Gordon Korman

Helen Wilding Cook is the Children’s Collection Development Coordinator at Library Bound Inc.

Favourite Reads of 2007 - The Librarian's Picks Part 1

Today we have a real treat. Nobody spends more time recommending books than librarians, and so here are two extremely avid readers and their picks for the top books of 2007

Ann Archer's Top 10 list - Ottawa Public Library

Because I love literary biographies and memoirs:

Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Portraits of Married Life in London Literary Circles 1910-1939 by Katie Roiphe

Lover of Unreason: Assia Wevill, Sylvia Plath's Rival and Ted Hughes's Doomed Love by Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev

Wild Mary: A Life of Mary Wesley by Patrick Marnham

Leonard Woolf by Victoria Glendinning

American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, et al, by Susan Cheever

Peeling the Onion by Gunter Grass

Some fiction that gave me pleasure in 2007:

Does Your Mother Know by Maureen Jennings
The Friends of Meager Fortune by David Adams Richards
Septembers in Shiraz by Dalia Sofer
The Architects are Here by Michael Winter
The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies

And the must read book of the year:

28: Stories of AIDS in Africa by Stephanie Nolen

Ann Archer is the coordinator of adult collections at Ottawa Public Library, dream job. Domestic bliss with new husband, trying to carve more time out for reading and knitting. Too bad one can't knit and read and sleep at the same time.....

Shonna Froebel's Top 10 List - Barrie Public Library

Many of the books I’ve chosen for this are ones that I had difficulty putting down when I was reading them. For fiction books, I was often struck by the characters, but the plot is important as well. It is a rare book that I like that doesn’t have a good plot to it. I’ve avoided some of the big hits (like A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini) as I feel readers are already aware of them. I’ve also limited myself to books aimed at adults although I’ve read some excellent children’s and teen books this year as well.
The nonfiction I’ve included here has all taught me interesting things (good for conversations) and often made me look at things in a new way. For more on the books I’ve read see my blog

In no particular order:
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell
Remembering the Bones by Frances Itani
Cloud of Bone by Bernice Morgan
Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truth in Small Things by Richard Wiseman (NonFiction)

The Unknown Terrorist by Richard Flanagan
Being Caribou by Karsten Heuer (NonFiction)
A Good Death by Gil Courtmanche
Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself by Alan Alda (NonFiction)
Q & A by Vikas Swarup
This Book Will Save Your Life by A.M. Homes


Shonna Froebel is the Manager of Adult Information Services at Barrie Public Library. Previous to that she worked in corporate libraries. She is on the CLA Advisory Committee on Intellectual Freedom and the OLA Readers’ Advisory Committee and OLA Evergreen Committee. She reads widely and voraciously thanks to the infinite patience of her husband, and the relaxing companionship of her two cats.

Best Books of 2007 - Dewey picks Part 1

Over the month of December, we'll be posting a number of top 10 lists of the best books of 2007, chosen by the Deweys, librarians, library students and library wholesalers. Today, we start with picks by the Deweys from Random House of Canada and McClelland & Stewart.

Maylin's Top 10 of 2007

Reps read in a strange time warp, so my picks of books published this year were mostly read in manuscript form in 2006. Likewise, if I had to pick my favourite reads this calendar year, a good chunk of 2008 books would top the list (oh, 2008 is going to be such a great literary year!). What stands out for me in 2007 is some excellent non-fiction; #11 would definately have been Chris Turner's The Geography of Hope. There was also some good humour; Douglas Coupland's The Gum Thief and Marie Phillips' Gods Behaving Badly made me laugh uncontrollably. I also want to acknowledge three books not published by my company that were wonderful reads: The Girls Who Saw Everything, by Sean Dixon; Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and The Gathering by Anne Enright. But for my top 10, it's all about the full package - a terrific read coupled with beautiful and thoughtful writing and above all, originality.

1. Orpheus Lost by Janette Turner Hospital
This novel has it all - tremendously exciting plot, wonderful characters, a blush-inducing love story, historical sweep and a cutting and horrific commentary on current events. This contemporary re-telling of the Orpheus and Eurydice story encompasses all the various ways in which the longlasting effects of war and conflicts reverberate through decades and generations. A terrific read.
2. Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee
This is my favourite non-fiction book of the year. Hermione Lee is a spectacular biographer and is perfectly matched with the fascinating life and times of Edith Wharton. Lee is so good at incorporating the life with the work; one can easily take a whole year to read this because you'll have to stop every so often to read Wharton's work as well. Entertaining, scholarly, and beautifully written.
3. Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
4. Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje
5. A Curious Earth by Gerard Woodward
6. 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa by Stephanie Nolen
7. The 100 Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon
8. The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta
9. Wash this Blood Clean From My Hand by Fred Vargas
10. The Letters of Noel Coward edited by Barry Day


Lahring's Top 10 of 2007
Once more, that familiar and pathetic cry, “How can I pick just ten out of all the great books from 2007?” Being a person of questionable moral rectitude (three decades in publishing will do that to you), I feel compelled to list my “Honourable Mentions” first - books that I very much enjoyed reading and talking about, but which just missed the Top Ten. For respectable light reading, Literacy and Longing in L.A., The Next Thing on My List, and The Long Walk Home; for more serious fare, Conceit and Gifted. My overall favourite? Probably Sebastian Faulks’ Engleby, a brilliant, savagely funny, disturbing portrait of a man whose sense of reality deviates slightly from the norm. Maybe more than slightly….

Children’s and YA Books

17 Things I'm Not Allowed to Do Any More by Jenny Offill

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little by Peggy Gifford

Abela: The Girl Who Saw Lions by Berlie Doherty
A Swift Pure Cry by Siobhan Dowd
Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Adult Fiction
Engleby by Sebastian Faulks

Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
The End of the Alphabet
by C.S. Richardson

All Will Be Revealed by Robert Anthony Siegel

Adult Nonfiction
Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Literary Marriages by Katie Roiphe

Anne's Top Ten of 2007

ADULT FICTION:
The Solitude of Emperors by David Davidar

Suffocating in the small-town world of his parents, Vijay is desperate to escape to the raw energy of Bombay in the early 1990s. As a result of an article he writes, Vijay gets a job in a small Bombay publication. A year after his arrival in Bombay, Vijay is caught up in violent riots that rip though the city, a reflection of the upsurge of fundamentalism everywhere in the country. A stunningly perceptive novel about modern India, and about what drives fundamentalist beliefs. I felt very informed when I finished this book. It is one of the smartest novels I have ever read.

The Veil of Roses by Laura Fitzgerald

The Hindi-Bindi Club by Monica Pradhan
One Night at the Call Center by Chetan Bhagat
Friend of the Devil by Peter Robinson

ADULT NON-FICTION

The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys
The stories in this book are based on fact but read like good fiction. They take place in London, England, on the River Thames every time it froze between 1142 and 1895. Whether it is the story of a man who takes pity on an underfed hare that is being raced against cosseted greyhounds or young lovers who are supposed to meet by the big fires on the river at the end of the plague, the stories are engaging and wonderful. What a storyteller!

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

A Star for Christmas by Trisha Romance
A gentle old carpenter who has spent his whole life in the service of others has finally begun to build his own home in a quiet meadow, with nothing but a small reindeer to keep him company. Finishing by winter seems like an impossible task, but the carpenter reaps the years of kindness he has sown, and his neighbors return his love by helping complete his new home by Christmas. I loved the warmth of this book. I also want his living room with the bookshelf, fireplace, big chair, cat and Christmas tree.
The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico, Illustrated by Angela Barrett
Porcupine by Meg Tilly
Safe As Houses by Eric Walters