20 Top Tens for Your Reading Pleasure

The website abebooks.com has a great selection of Top Ten Reading Lists. Click here to view the lists, which range from fun to downright ... um ... unusual. Thanks to AC and JS for this great contribution.

A Poem for a Rainy Day

It's raining in metro Atlanta. Click here to visit today's edition of The Writer's Almanac to read a poem titled "A Friend's Umbrella" by Lawrence Raab. While there, you'll also learn that Vincent Van Gogh died on this day in 1890.

Behind the Scenes at the Berkeley Public Library

The Berkeley Daily Planet (CA) features a look behind the scenes at Berkeley's Central Library. If you've ever wondered what goes on behind closed doors (or stacks), you'll enjoy learning just how many hands it takes to get a book ready for circulation. Click here to read the article.

Mystery Book Club Meets This Tuesday

The Mystery Readers' Book Club meets this Tuesday, July 28th, at 6:30 p.m. at the Roswell Library. This month's selection is The Bootlegger's Daughter by Margaret Maron. Join us for a fun and lively discussion!

In Memoriam: E. Lynn Harris

The literary world lost another great storyteller last week. Atlanta author Lynn Harris passed away suddenly while on a book tour in California. Mr. Harris broke new ground in fiction by portraying realistic characters with grace and grit. It has been said that he was a true southern gentleman who truly loved his fans. Click here to read a write up in Saturday's AJC.

Love Reading Tear-Jerkers?

Michelle Slatalla is a regular NY Times columnist who writes about her family - her byline reads "Wife/Mother/Worker/Spy" - with compassion and frequently tongue-firmly-in-cheek. Click here to read last week's column about her teen and preteen daughters' fascination with weepy novels.

Targeting Books at Target

There seems to be a new player in the book selling biz. Although Target has always been a small player in the book world, they are now tightly focused on introducing new and unknown authors and making big bucks while doing so! One of Target's bestselling authors is none other than Atlanta author Emily Giffin. Click here to read a recent article about Target's book division in the NY Times.

August Book Sale!

Our "End of Summer" book sale is Saturday, August 22 from 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. The Preview Party for members is Friday, August 21 from 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. New members are welcome to join at the door.

What's Next for Nosh

Many thanks to all who attended yesterday's Noonday Nosh Book Club. The next meeting is Tuesday, August 18th @ noon and the selection is How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else by Michael Gates Gill. As always, copies of the book are available at the Roswell Library. Please call 770-640-3075 to see if there's an available copy the staff can set aside for you.

Mr. Gill is the son of former New Yorker editor Brendan Gill. Learn how he lost it all and then realized that what he thought he had, didn't matter so much after all. Make sense? It will after you read the book. Enjoy!

Atlanta Booklover's Blog

Cal Gough, a Reference Librarian at the Ponce de Leon Branch, created and maintains a blog for booklovers - Atlanta Booklover's Blog - that will knock your socks off. Take a few minutes to explore his blog, especially the different categories. You'll be amazed and delighted and richly rewarded with lots of book recommendations! Click the link above or click here: http://atlantareader.wordpress.com/. Be sure to bookmark it.

A Blog for Mystery Lovers

Thanks to SQ and JS for a link to this blog for mystery lovers titled On Wings of Murder. It's written by a collection of mystery writers and is filled with lots of interesting info. and book recommendations. Click on the link above or click here to take a look: http://murderx5.blogspot.com/ Enjoy!

Noonday Nosh Book Club Meets Tomorrow

Noonday Nosh meets tomorrow @ noon! This month's selection, A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell, is highly recommended by Roswell's proud Italian Branch Manager, Lu Conti. Be there, or be square.

In Memoriam: Author Frank McCourt

A great author knows how to tell great stories in ways that touch, humor, and enlighten. Frank McCourt was a great author who died Sunday at the age of 78. The following links will direct you to articles and obituaries around the world.

New York Times

The Irish Independent

Los Angeles Times

The Guardian UK

Jiggy for Jigsaw Puzzles

The Telegraph UK has an article about the allure of jigsaw puzzles. Are you a fan? Author Margaret Drabble has written a new book about the power of jigsaws (The Pattern in the Carpet) and how they have helped shape her life. Her book will be released in the states in September. Click here to read about jigsaw puzzles. If you'd like to read Drabble's take on jigsaws, then click here.

Vote For Your FAV Beach Books

Visit NPR's Books section to vote for your favorite beach books. A selection of 100 titles is presented as "the best" and you can vote for your favorite 10. Click here to see the list, vote, and read how they chose these particular titles. There are a lot of Noonday Nosh Book Club selections on the list!

Noonday Nosh Book Club meets Tuesday, July 21st

Noonday Nosh Book Club meets at noon on the 21st. This month's selection is A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell. This selection is highly recommended by Roswell's Italian Branch Manager, Lu Conti.

News Alert: Author Frank McCourt is Gravely Ill

The Irish American writer (Angela's Ashes) is in a New York hospice. Mr. McCourt has been treated for skin cancer and recently came down with meningitis. To learn more, please visit NPR.com's article about this sad news.

Best-sellers That Almost Weren't ... Best-sellers

HowStuffWorks.com features a list of 14 books that almost didn't make it past the publisher's desk. Starting with Auntie Mame and ending with Dune, you'll be surprised by some of the titles on the list. Click here to learn more. This information is from Publications International, Ltd.

Happy 20th Anniversary!

Today is the 20th anniversary of the Roswell Library at its Norcross Street location. The photo to the left features representatives of the library system, the city of Roswell, Fulton county, and Friends of the Roswell Library at the grand opening ceremony on July 15, 1989.

The Roswell Library actually began in 1946 in a small room at the old Roswell Elementary School. To learn more about the history of the library, visit the Friends' website: http://www.forl.net/branchpage.html .

Congratulations to Lu Conti, her staff, the Friends, and the community for making Roswell one of the best and busiest libraries in Fulton county.

Vive la France

Bonjour! Today is Bastille Day, a national holiday in France commemorating the storming of the Bastille Prison in 1789. This marked the beginning of the French Revolution. To learn more about Bastille Day, visit Wikipedia's page on Fête Nationale. Brush up on French local news by reading The Connexion, an online English language French newspaper.

Author Paul Hemphill

Beloved Atlanta author Paul Hemphill died Saturday, July 11th, from cancer. Mr. Hemphill was an Alabama native, but called Georgia home. He was a proud southerner. Visit his website to link to a poignant obituary in the AJC: www.paulhemphill.net.

Fiction Shop with David Fulmer

Author David Fulmer will speak at the Roswell Library on September 12 @ 2:00 p.m. He is currently teaching writing workshops called Fiction Shop at Eagle Eye Book Shop in Decatur. The back to school Fiction Shop classes begin August 24th.

Classes meet Monday evenings, 6:15 p.m. - 8:15 p.m. in the Reading Room at Eagle Eye Book Shop (on North Decatur Road).

Now in its third year, Fiction Shop is an intensive program designed for fiction and non-fiction writers who want to improve and expand their skills. The goal is to develop, improve, and refine the essential components of the craft: settings, dialogue, characters, plotting, and the other critical narrative skills.

David Fulmer is the author of six novels with Harcourt Books, including the critically-acclaimed and award-winning Storyville series.For more details, visit DavidFulmer.com/shoppage.

Happy Birthday, Wall Street Journal

On this day in 1889, a four page business newsletter was officially published as the Wall Street Journal. In addition to business news, the WSJ has an excellent books section. Click here to take a look.

This tidbit was posted on the Writer's Almanac. To visit WA and learn more interesting tidbits, click here.

A Love Song to Roswell, GA

The July 4th edition of the AJC featured a lovely opinion piece by Vicki Griffin. She sang the praises of Roswell, Ga with a special nod to its Alive After Five program. Click here to read it online.

Happy 4th of July!

To celebrate the nation's birthday, here's an article from earlier in the year from the Christian Science Monitor about a man who's reading biographies of every U. S. President. Kudos to him! Click here to read the article.

A 24/7 Library

The Open Library is a project dedicated to creating a better relationship between books and the internet. The goal is to create a web page for each book. Click here to read a Guardian UK article about the project. Learn more about it by visiting the Open Library website.

A quick check of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen at Open Library reveals information similar to a catalog record (author, title, publisher, subject headings, etc.) and links to booksellers (Amazon, et. al), libraries, and Google Book Search.

A Precious Ramotswe Cookbook

Fans of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series will be happy to learn about a forthcoming cookbook featuring Botswanan recipes! Proceeds will go to charity. Learn more by reading this article in the Telegraph UK.

The Library of Congress is Now on iTunes

The Library of Congress is now offering its podcasts and other programs via iTunes U. For FREE, you can download author interviews and a host of other fun and interesting programs. (To listen to these programs or to save them to an iPod or MP3 player, you must first download a free copy of iTunes to your computer.) Visit the Library of Congress website to learn more.