Get Free E-books through Your Library!

Did you receive a Kindle or a Nook for Christmas?  Then you’re in luck!  The Morris Area Public Library provides access to free e-books 24/7 through the library’s website with a valid Morris library card in good standing.  You can browse the collection, check out with your library card, and download to Kindles, Nooks, and other e-readers and mobile devices. To get started, you will need to download the free OverDrive app (found in the Apps store) onto your e-reader.  If you want to read a Kindle-formatted e-book, you will also need to download the free Kindle app. E-books available through your library can be enjoyed immediately by downloading directly to your e-reader through the OverDrive app. The e-books will automatically expire at the end of the lending period, which means no late fees!  There are hundreds of popular fiction and non-fiction titles to choose from, so the new collection is guaranteed to have something for everyone. You can download best-selling novels, biographies, and much more right now by visiting www.morrislibrary.com and clicking on the “Download audiobooks and eBooks” image on the homepage.

We know that sometimes learning how to use a new device can be tricky, so give us a call if you need a little help!  The library’s phone number is 815-942-6880.  Happy reading!

A Year of Books in Review

With the new year just around the corner, “best of” and “top” lists are popping up all over the place. Here are a few to get you started. Put a check next to those you’ve read and see if there are any you missed!

2011′s Best Celebrity Tell-Alls

Six Graphic Novels That Will Draw You In

Five Brilliant Biographies

2011′s Top 5 YA (Young Adult/Teen) Novels

2011′s Best Historical Fiction

The Year’s Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy

E-reader Buying Guides

Are you thinking about buying an e-reader for yourself or someone else for the holidays? Before you go to the store and pick up the cheapest and/or slickest-looking device, make sure you analyze which e-reader is best for your (or your someone else’s) needs. Here are a few guides to get you started.

Buying an Ereader: A Checklist
How to Pick an Ereader This Holiday Season

Whichever e-reader you choose, remember that the Morris Area Public Library has a free downloadable e-book service that works well with all e-reader formats!

Sanctus by Simon Toyne

Sanctus by Simon Toyne

A man throws himself to his death from the oldest inhabited place on the face of the earth, a mountainous citadel in the historic Turkish city of Ruin. This is no ordinary suicide but a symbolic act. And thanks to the media, it is witnessed by the entire world, but few understand it. For charity worker Kathryn Mann and a handful of others in the know, it is what they have been waiting for. The secretive fanatics that live in the Citadel suspect it could mean the end their deepest secret – and they will kill, torture, and break every law to stop the secret from getting out. For Liv Adamsen, New York crime reporter, it begins the next stage of a journey into the heart of her own identity. At journey’s end lies a discovery that will change everything.

While not exactly ground-breaking, Sanctus is an enjoyable and entertaining read. What sets this particular book apart from others of its ilk is the location (Ruin, Turkey) and that the reader learns somewhat early on that the secret pre-dates any organized religion. The pacing of the writing keeps you wanting to keep going to see what will happen next. For those looking for an easy and quickly-moving book, give this one a try.

2011 National Book Award Winners Announced

The National Book Foundation announced the 2011 winners.  The winners, as well as other finalists, can be found on the Foundation’s website.  Have you read any of these excellent choices?

Best First Lines of Novels

Some of literature’s opening sentences are famous (or infamous, as the case may be), but does that necessarily mean that they’re one of the top 100 best first lines?  Find out and test your knowledge of novels’ opening lines by checking out this list provided by infoplease.com.  Novels on the list range from bestsellers to classics, American to Russian, Victorian to contemporary.  What do you think?  Do you agree or disagree with any of these choices?

2011 National Book Award Nominees Announced

The 2011 National Book Award nominees have been announced!  How many of these finalists have you read?  Click on a title below to place a hold.

Fiction
The Sojourn by Andrew Krivak
The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

Nonfiction
The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism by Deborah Baker
Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution by Mary Gabriel
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable
Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss (contact the library at 815-942-6880 to see if this is available elsewhere)

Poetry
Head Off & Split by Nikky Finney (contact the library at 815-942-6880 to see if this is available elsewhere)
The Chameleon Couch by Yusef Komunyakaa
Double Shadow by Carl Phillips
Tonight No Poetry Will Serve: Poems: 2007-2010 by Adrienne Rich
Devotions by Bruce Smith

Young People’s Literature
Chime by Franny Billingsley
My Name Is Not Easy by Debby Dahl Edwardson (contact the library at 815-942-6880 to see if this is available elsewhere)
Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai
Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy by Albert Marrin
Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt

Pick a Kindle, Any Kindle!

Hello one and all!  In case you missed our last announcement, OverDrive announced that their library partners (including us) can now get Kindle-formatted e-books through their OverDrive subscription!  OverDrive now supports even more e-book devices than ever before, including but not limited to the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Sony Reader, and the Kobo.

If you’ve been debating which Kindle to get for this new service, here is the link to a flowchart from theunderstatement.com to help guide you through the many available features and functionality until you choose the right Kindle for you.

Happy reading!

Library eBooks Now Available for Kindle!

Kindle E-Books Now Available! Amazon announced on Wednesday, September 21 that they have partnered with OverDrive, the e-books provider used by this library, to provide Kindle-formatted e-books through OverDrive.  This new format is available immediately.  You can access the Kindle-formatted e-books by going to the library’s OverDrive homepage and clicking on the Kindle “Now Available” graphic (identical to the above image) located on the left side of the page.  Clicking the image will show you all of the Kindle-compatible titles owned by the library.  When you select a title (or two or three) and begin to check out, you will be redirected to the Amazon website and will need to log in using your Amazon account to complete the checkout.

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

 

 

 

 

 

 

To read the summary of this book, one might believe it to be a humorous sci-fi story. The reality is that this is a science, sci-fi, and literary novel. The story is deep and sad in its exploration of self-imposed isolation, interesting and sometimes heady in its exploration of the science of space-time and self-others/ self-self relationships, and surprising in its highly literary writing style. Moments of humor punctuate the story at just the right moment and in just the right dosage to keep things from being too heavy. This book is recommended for anyone who enjoys literary, science, or sci-fi books.